Mischief, Rum, and Comic Book Wishes
by Adrienne Valentine
Summary: Amelia Samuels was your average Comic-Con nerd. She dressed up, waited in line to get swag, and dreamed of a chance to meet the real Avengers like in some of the silly fan-fictions she read. Little did she realize that she'd get her wish soon enough. Insert, slight AU, silliness ensues. Enjoy. Formerly 'The Wish Assistant'.
1. Prologue

**The Wish Assistant  
**

By Adrienne Valentine

**Summary:** It was like I'd gotten some sort of magic, wish-granting spell cast on me! Everything was going my way today. Now, if only I could appear in the Marvel-verse like one of those cliché fan-fictions. That would be awesome...

**AN:** This is a very silly fanfiction meant to be, well, very silly and very fluffy and overall, not to be taken too seriously. I don't write silly or fluffy very often, so we'll see how long it lasts that way. If you want something darker or more serious, you can read my Avengers/X-men Evolution crossover fanfiction: Shadows Never Lie instead.

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The day so far had been amazing. I had gotten signatures from all of the main Avengers actors, which was amazing. I'd done my best not to jump for joy and look like the nerd I was. I'd even gotten a picture with Tom Hiddleston in my costume, which was totally going to be developed and framed as soon as possible; along with a few other pictures I'd taken. I'd gotten a stack of new comics to read, and some silly little collectibles. Loki, Captain America and Iron Man plushies. I'd gone to my hotel room, dropped off said things and then gone drinking. Getting, of course, more pictures. Largely of me in costume with other nerds in costume, being drunk. No real surprise there. Tomorrow I'd probably be spending the rest of my carefully saved up money on other frivolous things that would sit on a shelf and look cool.

But the first day of Comic Con had been awesome. I had a blast so far, where everything had been going amazingly well for me. Like I'd had some sort of magic wish-granting spell over me or something. Like a Genie. Not a Djinn. Djinn tended to skew your wishes into something one-off, while genies were nicer. Like in Aladdin! Wow, I really am a nerd if I'm differentiating genies and djinn when I'm just glad I've had a good day. I mean, really, at this point, the only thing that could make it better was actually being transported into Marvel-World ala oh so cliche fanfiction.

The idea is enough to give my half-drunk mind something to laugh about as I slide the keycard into the door, pushing it open to reveal the neat, clean smelling room, freshly stocked, with my collection of swag from the convention placed haphazardly on the bed. Thrown, more like, really, as I'd rushed in and out to meet my friends at the bar. I hadn't changed, none of us had, that was part of the fun, after all. A huge group of costumed nerds invading the nearest bar and ordering more than our fair share of drinks. And having plenty of them ordered for us lady-nerds.

Especially if our tits had been hanging out, I mused as I glanced down at my own chest, hanging out very clearly, my phone and my camera shoved down into my bra at some point at the bar for fear of losing them. I reached up and carefully removed the horned helm I was wearing, placing it as carefully as I could on the table near the door. I pulled the massive (fake) fur cloak off of my shoulders, throwing it on the bed, where it covered half of the stuff I'd gotten. I was really tempted right then, looking at the elaborate costume I'd chosen to wear for the day, to just fall asleep with it on and deal with taking it off when I wasn't still feeling the copious amounts of alcohol. _Copious was a funny word,_ I thought with a chuckle as I reached behind me to undo the lacings of the corset I was wearing. Damn things were a pain to undo at the best of times. Right now? It was a bitch, but I ended up taking it off, throwing it on top of the cloak.

It was much quicker to get out of the rest of the tight green leather-looking outfit, the gold knee high boots, the over-skirt, the gloves. I made a pile of it ontop of the cloak, not even bothering to make a neat pile right now. Walking around in my underwear, I had to grab a glass of water to drink as much as I could before I went to bed. _I wonder if I have any crackers? I do not want to be hungover tomorrow._ It's really not that interesting of an evening as I start to put all my things away before even getting dressed again. Looking at the plushies, a very silly idea struck me. Grabbing the Captain America one, I stuffed 'him' down my bra and chuckled.

"Stay there. Don't want you getting cold." I was far too amused by myself.

Glancing at the stack of comics now sitting next to the horned helm, I grab a couple of them as I decide to finally get dressed. Pulling out a pair of yoga pants and gripping the comics tightly between my teeth (something most comic nerds would kill me for), I don't really have any hands when I trip over one of the legs, falling over and hitting my head on one of the tables in my room.

The room went black for a moment and the whole world was spinning around me, as if I'd fallen from some uncertain height. Definitely made me want to puke, stomach contents churning uncertainly, clutching my stomach with one hand, and pulling the comics from my teeth with the other, preparing to wretch right there on the floor.

But soon the world stopped spinning, the light came back and my stomach started to settle. Opening my eyes, however, did not prove as... encouraging as I'd thought it would. Sprawled across a cold floor, with a couple of figures staring down at me, I had to be hallucinating. Or dreaming. Something, because there was no way that Tony Stark, Dr. Bruce Banner and Nick Fury were in my room, hovering above me.

Whatever was going on, however, was too much for my inebriated state and setting my head back down against the floor, the world faded back to black.

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**AN: I don't know if I want to keep up first person. I don't like writing in it too much. So prolouge only? Change this rubbish into third person and be done with it? Bah. We shall see. Title also subject to change. I have no idea what to call this story... ****Reviews will be loved, dearies.**  



	2. Chapter 1

**AN: I am so happy by all the reviews, alerts and favorites!  
**

**YES: I'm glad you like the idea. Hope you like how it goes from here. :)  
**

**Vex Matthewson: Hey there! I'm so glad you reviewed my story. :3 And yea, fluffy is good sometimes.  
**

**SmartKitty314: I'm trying to make it more "self"-insert than OC ****(well, as self-insert as I'm willing to go, really. I can't do it 100%)**, so I'm hoping that she seems realistic. Let me know if you think she strays too far!  


**Little Weasley Girl: Yea, I knew there would be a few people cringing at that. Of course, not all of us are as careful as we should be. Comic-Con is love!  
**

**Thank you guys for reviewing!  
**

**And thank you to hannahiscoollike, shadowfox2011, LittleRobinForever, What-I-Got, precious 92 and Gwen luvs dramoine for adding the story to your 'alerts'! Love you all. 3  
**

* * *

**The Wish Assistant  
**

By Adrienne Valentine

**Chapter One**

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I groaned as I woke up, my head pounding and my whole body sore and aching like I'd just run a marathon. Immediately I twisted to my side, intent on grabbing the over-starched hotel blanket and throwing it over my head for maybe another hour of sleep before even trying to get up. Except the blanket I grabbed was not over-starched, or thick, or even remotely close to what I'd slept in the night before. It was a thin, somewhat soft bed sheet. My mind started racing through the events of the previous night. I knew I'd gotten thoroughly smashed, flirting with plenty of fellow nerds in order to get an extra helping of liquor (or two), as well as plenty of what I could only assume were regulars, but... I distinctly remembered going back to my own room.

Clenching my eyes tight as I heard someone moving around in the room, I really had to wonder if maybe I had gone home with someone that night? Normally, I was not that stupid, but with all the attractive people who had been there, all in their wonderful costumes, I really wouldn't put it past myself for a little 'role-playing'. Just had to remember which one it was. Maybe the cute ambiguously gendered Loki cosplayer? No, that ambiguous-Loki had wandered off with an ambiguous Hawkeye. Maybe the slightly too skinny Captain America cosplayer? No, he'd gotten drunk very quick and had to be taken out by some friends.

As I racked my brain through all the people I'd talked to and flirted with the night before, trying to figure out which one I might have gone home with, I realized fairly quickly that I had no idea who it could be. And an incessant beeping noise to my right made it that much harder to concentrate. Eventually deciding that I might as well grin and bear it, I opened my eyes, finding myself face to face with a wall. A metal wall, even. Which was, needless to say, more than a little bit odd.

_'Where the hell am I?'_ I wondered, _'And how much did I have to drink last night?'_

I turned and sat up in the bed, blinking at the bright light of the room. Squinting through it for a moment before reaching up and pressing the balls of my hands into my eyes. I heard the footsteps again, coming towards me. I jumped a little bit when I felt a hand grab my wrist lightly, and looked up. It was a woman, dressed in scrubs. A doctor or a nurse, maybe. It was hard to tell most of the time. I frowned, the memory of falling over and hitting my head while trying to get dressed coming back to me in a rush. A painful rush. I reached up to press a hand against my pounding head again. Had one of my friends come in, found me like that and decided to take me to the hospital? It wouldn't surprise me, they all knew I was a klutz half the time.

I watched the woman write something down on the sheet of paper she had attached to the clipboard, smile at me tightly, and walk right out of the room. No words had been exchanged and I got the feeling that something was wrong. The last time I had been in the Hospital, people had been very friendly. Looking down at myself, I wondered how long I'd been here. No one had changed me into a hospital gown or anything, though someone had 'emptied' the contents of my bra. Which, realistically, could have just been the fall to the floor. Either one could have done it, really. I couldn't decide whether to feel embarrassed or not, so I ignored the feeling all together.

I blinked at the bright light for a few more minutes and I was beginning to think I was officially hungover. Which sucked. Normally, I'm pretty good about not getting hungover, making sure to stay hydrated enough. With how bright everything still seemed, I couldn't help but wonder. It was a little annoying, maybe someone could give me some aspirin or something. Glancing around, I decided to look for my phone to find out what time it was. There was an interview panel with Joss Whedon at noon and I didn't want to miss it. Might have to sneak in the doors without getting into my day two costume and then go back and change afterwards. A bit of a bummer because I always preferred to spend most of the day in costume, but if it was too close to noon, I didn't want to risk it. Standing up, I wobbled slightly as the world spun around my, the edges of my vision going black and fuzzy. I sighed before plopping back down on the hospital bed, looking around dejected. I hated the standing vertigo I'd get sometimes. No sign of my phone. Maybe one of my friends had it?

I sat there for a few more minutes, breathing deeply to try to get my head on straight before standing again. No vertigo this time. Giving myself a small nod, I took a tentative step forward, eyes focused intently on my feet. One foot in front of the other. Oh God, I felt like a child.

I heard the whoosh of the door opening and looked up to the source. In front of me was a very accurate cosplayer of Nick Fury, glaring at me in a very convincing manner, with a worried looking blonde behind him. Maybe a Steve Rogers cosplayer? He looked a lot like Chris Evans, but he may have made his own 'casual wear' costume. A lot of the people who looked fairly close to the characters could get away with it. This guy, definitely could.

"Miss Samuels." The Nick Fury cosplayer started, holding up a clipboard with a frown. I nodded, staring at him, mouth hanging open slightly. His voice was even pretty close! I knew I was staring now, but I really didn't care. Nodding dumbly, I waited to figure out what the hell was going on. "Age twenty six, born April Seventh?"

"Yeesss?" I said, nodding along and wondering what this whole thing was about.

"Care to tell me how you got onto my Helicarrier?" He asked me. Then the staring contest started as I gave this guy the most incredulous and 'what the hell are you talking about' look I could muster as he waited for my response. It was kind of odd to have a staring contest with a guy with an eye patch on, though. Then it hit me. Sarah had been hinting that she'd had a big surprise for me, this must be it. Some sort of LARPing. Oh, this could be interesting. I just had to figure out my 'role', and I wasn't exactly good at improve. So I just shrug and decided to go with snark. Snark is good.

"Why don't you tell me why no one has given me a shirt to wear?" I retort back, motioning to my chest. I was only wearing my bra, after all. The guy behind 'Fury' looks around, as if trying to find me a shirt for a moment, as if he'd just realized that -oh my gosh!- I wasn't wearing a shirt. 'Fury' takes a break from glaring at me to send 'Steve' a look that I can only translate to 'what are you doing'? 'Steve' stopped looking around, stood there for a moment, then took off his freaking shirt and handed it to me. Blinking, I went back and forth between him and his shirt a couple times before grinning and tugging it over my head. "Jesus Christ, the shirt even smells 'American'. I'm keeping this. No take backs."

I chuckle at my own joke and they're looking at me like I'm crazy. I've gotten that look too many times not to know what it was. Oh well.

"You didn't answer my question Miss Samuels." 'Fury' ground out, glaring at me again, "How did you get onto my Helicarrier?"

I pause before giving my typical 'I have no real idea' response. "Magic powers?"

It's the best I got, really. Because I don't know what other answer I could give at this point. So I'm not going to worry about it too much. Looking around again, I really wish I could find some of my things. Any of them. I really hate not having my stuff, it really makes me uncomfortable. I'm not one of the people who has to check their phone every five minutes, but when I don't have it, I at least like to know where it is. He was still giving me that look and I sighed.

"Look, this is awesome and all, but where's my stuff?" I asked the guys. They were doing a really good job at acting through all of this, but improv was really not my thing and my head was pounding. No response for a moment and I lowered my voice, "I won't tell Sarah you broke character, it's okay."

Sarah was a bit of an acting nut. I wouldn't put it past her to tell these guys that they wouldn't get paid, or that they'd get fined if they broke character.

"Excuse me?" 'Fury' snapped. _Sigh._ Guess no luck with that, then. The woman (nurse/doctor?) from before came in with a clipboard, handed it to 'Fury' and left without a word. Crossing my arms over my chest, I waited for something to work with. I was starting to get a little annoyed. When was this going to get to the good part? Where I help heroically save the day, pretend I actually do have super-powers, and get a kiss from one of the Avengers? I'm sure she set it up like this to make it seem more 'canon'. She was obsessed with people staying 'in-character'. "Your blood work just came back in. Anything you want to tell me before I find out for myself?"

Ooooh. maybe I get to be a mutant in this one. Good call, Sarah, I was a huge X-Men fan. Always have been. I like where this is going. I'll play it down. Like I'm finding it out for the first time. That will be fun. Shrugging, I look towards the blank wall with the most passive expression I can muster.

"High blood alcohol content? Slight Anemia since I don't eat a lot of meat?" I look over at 'Steve', who is looking as serious as someone can without a shirt, and I decide 'why not? He's cute.' I'm going for it. Maybe after this little 'surprise' Sarah set up I can see if he has a girlfriend. "Which that part can be fixed pretty easily if I can get some of that beefcake.

It was cheesy, yes. It was terrible, yes. But I don't give a damn, waggling my eyebrows at him and grinning like a mad-woman. He looks a little shocked, and 'Fury' gives him a look that has him leaving the room. I pout at the man left as he opens the folder. "Why'd you send him off? I was enjoying the view!"

He gives me that same look before reviewing my 'file'. He makes a bored sounding 'hm' before closing it again. This is it. This is when he tells me I'm some sort of mutant with awesome powers and I get to go off and help the Avengers fight crime or something like that. Something awesome. He's taking a long time to read it. His eye going back to the top and scanning it again. Oh, did he forget his line? Maybe it's hard to see with the eye patch. He's probably not used to it. _Come on, just tell me what my awesome mutant power is already. Make shit up. I'll go with it._

"Seems you're just an average human." He says, and I frown. Maybe I'm supposed to be a super-spy or something? This is really stretching it now. I have no idea what Sarah's getting at with this any more. What sort of 'role-play' is this? My patience is wearing a little thin and I really don't know to go with this anymore. Damn Sarah and her obsession with theatre. I don't even know my character! "Still doesn't explain how you got here. So talk."

"Look, Sarah didn't tell me my character for this, I'm hungover as hell and I really want to make it in time for the Joss Whedon interview in my American Dream costume, can you just give me my line?" I beg, trying to get this thing rolling. No one has given me an aspirin yet and I can still hear that damnedable beeping noise from somewhere in the room. He still has that furious look on his face. (Nick Fury, looking furious. Fitting.)

"Your line, Miss Samuels, is telling me whether you're working for Loki." He all but snarled at me, reminding me very intensely of a lion in that moment, making me jump back slightly in surprise. Really good actor, this guy is playing his character very well. If I didn't know better, I would actually believe this guy is Nick Fury. But now I'm finally getting the point of this. So Sarah is having me be a spy for Loki. Okay, okay. She probably had been expecting to find me still in my costume from yesterday and had just gone along with it. I can play this part. I think. Trying again to fix my best innocent look on my face, I go with it.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, sir." Luckily for me, the 'innocent girl' is really the only acting that I can do halfway decently, "I don't even know where I am or how I got here!"

It was true, for the most part. I had an idea, probably carried by some of the actors. Still, this was turning out to be pretty awesome so far. Just had to go with it. 'Steve' comes back in, now wearing a new shirt and whispers something to 'Fury' that I can't quite catch. He nods, and looks at me with what I'm assuming is meant to be a calculating look. Yea, it must be really hard to do facial expressions with that eye patch. I sure as hell couldn't do it. Then again, not an actor. There is a moment where he's staring at me while I wait before he walks over and grabs my arm tightly.

"Very well, Miss Samuels. Come with me." He says, and I'm half-dragged, half-walked out of the room, where the door opens with a whoosh and we're in a hall way. 'Steve' is behind us, and when 'Fury' lets go of my arm after I don't struggle any, he stays behind me as if in case I try to bolt. _Great, I'm being flanked._ It's not long before I'm escorted through this hallway (which looked equally real, I will have to ask Sarah how she put this together, because this is amazing), through two sets of doors that 'Fury' has to key in some code for, and into a room.

I cannot stop the smile that spreads across my face when I realize _what_ room it is, and I have to stamp it down. Can't break character or something like that, but I can feel the twitch in my cheek as I suppress the urge to smile. It's Loki's cell from the movie. Again, it's looking amazing, and 'Fury' grabs my arm again as 'Steve' stands by the door and I'm marched in front of the glass dome. Someone who does a very convincing God of Mischief is standing inside of it, watching us.

"Well, well, what have we here?" 'Loki' practically purrs and this man's rendition is amazing, sending a shiver through my spine.

_"_That's Morrigan's line, and Flemeth's." I whisper, mostly to myself. That is a fairly good indicator that this is the scene I was meant to get to. She knows I love that game. The men send me a look, but otherwise ignore me.

"Your trick is not going to work, Loki." 'Fury' snarls, shoving me forward slightly and I stumble forward, using the glass to catch myself. 'Loki' looks at me with a raised brow. Damn, this guy is pretty attractive as well. I stay against the glass and look over to the man speaking. "So here's your little spy to keep you company."

That's all he says before he storms off, leaving the room, 'Steve' following suit and the door sliding closed behind him. I look up at 'Loki' and I have to wonder what's going on now. This part seems a little out of character. If Fury really did think I was a spy, why would he leave me alone with Loki? Especially on this side of the glass. I frown slightly as the man behind the glass looks down at me.

"My little spy?" He asks me, and I have to say, I LOVE this man's accent. "If you're mine, why don't you let me out of here?"

Alright, good, it looks like they're supplying me with directions now. In character at least. I smile up at him sweetly. I am liking this. I'm guessing I let him out, we 'escape' and then... I help him take over the world or something? I'm surprised Sarah didn't cast me as a hero, but oh well. I'll take it. Doubt there will be much romantic plot though in this. With how elaborate the 'stage' looks so far, she probably went for only the basics. Well, unless the actor actually finds me attractive and wants to make out or something. Not exactly the greatest chance, but a girl can dream.

"Of course, my lord." I say, giving him a small bow and he gives me such a pleased expression as I walk over to the control panel.

And realize they probably made it too accurate. I'm good with computers, but this thing is foreign to me. I tap on the screen, hitting one of the buttons and hope it's the right one. Instead of the 'door' opening (or 'Loki' pushing aside the door, or anything close to that), the 'airlock' underneath the cage opens. The seamless way that the airlock opens and the vacuum of air beneath it is another thing that I have to admit is awesome. Amazing. I have no idea how she managed to set all of this up. She has rich parents, sure, but this is stretching it. I wonder if she started dating some guy who was into making 'set's or actually working on the Avengers movie or something because this was unbelievably realistic.

I have to know how they're doing the vacuum though. I can feel it from where I'm standing, the rush of air pulling downwards making it a bit difficult to breath. It will break the illusion, but I don't think I care. I walk over to the glass cage, one hand firmly grasping the railing and look down.

And down. And oh my god, there are not vacuums down there pulling the air down. Oh god, it's getting hard to breath. There is nothing but clouds and a very distant sky below us. The sucked down air is pulling the breath from my lungs and the clean smell of air makes me panic.

This is definitely not something that could have been put together by Sarah. This is... I pull out a few coins from the pocket of my yoga pants. Left there, very likely, from when I got a midnight snack in these the night before. Tentatively, I drop a penny. It soars down and disappears out of sight. No clink, no clank. No indication that it did not just fall right into the sky. I drop another coin. The same thing. I can feel myself shaking now, my breathing getting rapid as I simply drop the rest of my coins. They fall through the cracks in the walkway and down into the sky.

I am actually in the clouds, somewhere above Earth, with what I'd been assuming were actors, and I have no idea what is going on. I'm gripping the railing with white knuckles as I walk back to the control panel, suddenly terrified I'm going to fall careening down at any second. I press the same 'button' I pressed before, the airlock closing up tightly as I back up and against the wall, slumping down.

As I plop my ass right down on the edge of the walkway, my chest hurts. My heart is pounding against my ribs a million miles a second and it is still really hard to breathe. I'm gasping for air as my mind clouds up. Oh shit, what the hell is this? What the hell is going on? Sarah couldn't have done this.

I recognize what's going on quickly, my whole body seizing up with panic. I'm shaking against the wall so hard that it hurts. I close my eyes and bring my knees to my chest, hugging my legs and hiding my head the best that I can. I have no idea what's going on. I have no idea where I am and I think I'm going crazy.

I can hear myself muttering "Oh God, Oh shit, Oh God..." Over and over again.

Breathe, Amelia, Breathe.

Air in. Oh God, someone else has come into the room.

Air out. I feel a hand on my arm and I clamp tighter into myself.

Air in. Someone's talking to me.

Air out. Okay, pull your head up.

Air in. It's 'Steve'. He's saying something to me, extending his hand.

Air out. I take his hand, watching as mine is still shaking terribly.

Air in. He takes me out of the room and as I continue to try to get my breathing regulated, he takes me back to the room I was in before, helping me sit down on the bed. My stuff is there now. My ID that had been in my bra, some cash, my cell phone, camera and, my little Captain America plushie. I don't even care that I feel like a child as I grab it and clutch it to my chest. I continue to breathe in and out as the panic subsides. Finally, I look up at 'Steve', brushing the back of my hand against my now wet cheeks and decide to ask.

"What is going on?" I ask him, my voice cracking. Yea. So much for having another great day.

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**AN: Okay, so I decided I liked first person for this. And see, I couldn't keep it 100% fluff. But I think everyone would freak out at that point. It'll go back to fluffy and silly soon. Explanations of how she got there and what the hell Fury was thinking in the next chapter. Let me know what you think of it!  
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	3. Chapter 2

**Vex Matthewson: I'm glad you liked that. I had a fun time writing it.  
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**Harvest Sun: Not quite cloud fluffy. And, actually, somewhat serious. Oh well. Glad you like it. :3  
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**NICE: Thank you. :)  
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**Hiatsu: Thank you! I'm glad you like it. I was worried about the style since I don't write first person very often.  
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**hannahiscoollike: Haha, yea. I figured that would be the only thing she'd believe.  
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**SmartKitty314: It's alright to get sentimental. I get that way about my fellow nerdlings sometimes too. :p I'm glad you liked the LARPing comment and all the nerd culture references. :p Glad the story makes you happy! :)  
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**bandnerd2669: I couldn't make her sixteen or something like that, it'd be silly in the less good way. And I'm glad you liked her assumption and find her funny! And yup. I don't think it can be completely fluffy without it being too ridiculous. More Cap Plushie ahead!  
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**Taylor: That would make sense, and I was debating that for a while for this chapter, but since I'm trying to keep the fic as light-hearted as possible, and with the when of the story, I couldn't work Black Widow in there.  
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**SceneNeko: Here you go! :3  
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**SunshineLion: I'm glad you like it! I don't usually write 'Drop-in-world'/"self"-inserts, I'm not the biggest fan of them for the same reasons. So I hope she doesn't start straying.  
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**And thanks to everyone who added 'The Wish Assistant' to your favorites and story alerts! There were so many of you this chapter! It's a very long list this time... Giggles at Crime Scenes, CastielmyAngel,  
**

******AN: I love you guys! 10 reviews for the last chapter! I hope this one doesn't push it too much! Couldn't make it as fluffy as I originally planned, though. I had to rewrite this chapter to find a good balance, though. So I hope you guys approve!**

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**The Wish Assistant  
**

By Adrienne Valentine

**Chapter Two  
**

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I don't know how long I'm sitting there, clutching the Captain America plushie and trying not to burst into further tears. I feel like a complete idiot as this Steve Rogers look alike is sitting next to me on the bed, sort of awkwardly trying to comfort me in random intervals, and over all, looking a bit helpless while doing so. Has this guy never seen an upset woman? I'm probably not being very helpful either, to be honest. I'm not very apt to taking comfort from anybody, really. Every time he tries to tell me it's alright, I kind of give him a look like 'are you crazy' and he just quiets down for a little bit again. I just had a panic attack wherever the hell I am, this guy coming and dragging me out of what had looked a hell of a lot like the holding cell from the Avengers movie. Needless to say, this is not what I was expecting my day to be like when I woke up.

Really, I was not expecting a day like this. Ever. Actually. I saw this as I had three options: Sarah had spent a whole hell of a lot of money to throw this elaborate surprise/prank/whatever and must have won the lottery or something to do so. Two, I was on a whole shit ton of drugs. Someone might have spiked my drink or something of the sort while I was at the bar last night (?). Or three, somehow this was real. Somehow I was really on the SHIELD HQ Helicarrier Air-Ship... Thing.

This obviously seemed like the least likely possibility that could occur. But somehow... I frowned, turning towards 'Steve' slightly. I felt a little ridiculous in all of this, but I was going to ask anyways.

"Are you really Steve Rogers? As in the Captain America?" I ask him, watching him intently as I wait for him to respond.

"Yes." He nods to me, as if wondering if I'm going to freak out again. His voice is shy and hesitant. I shrug a little bit at him before smiling.

"Well. That's pretty cool, then. Didn't think I'd ever get to meet you." He smiles back at me gently when I say this. If he is the Real Steve Rogers, this must be similar to what he went through with Phil Coulson. Having fans was not anything inherently new for Captain America. He's had fans for ages, after all. Since World War II. I smile just a little bit thinking about it. I reach over and place my hand on his knee and smile up at him carefully. "Thanks."

He opens his mouth to start to say something when the door whooshes open and in walks... Agent Coulson. This whole thing is starting to seem a bit surreal for me, but I'm not going to keep arguing with any of this. It sits somewhere between too good to be true and some sort of weird, far-out dream.

"Director Fury wants to talk with you, Captain." He says. Steve nods, laying his hand on mine and giving it a reassuring squeeze before standing up, letting go of my hand and walking towards the door, leaving me in the room with Agent Coulson. He smiles kindly at me in that way that he did in the films, before walking over to me and pulling up a chair next to my bed. I smile back at him, feeling a little bit worn out by any of this. "I have a question, Miss Samuels."

"Call me Amelia, or Amy." I tell him, smiling, but I nod. "And shoot. Ask away. I don't think this day could get any weirder."

"Alright Amelia," He says with a small smile, the same sort of tight smile as before, he pauses for a moment before asking me his question "Why did you try to let Loki out of his cell?"

I give a dry chuckle at his question before frowning. This really is surreal. I pull the Captain plushie, looking down at it and holding it up for him to look at for a moment. I frown, taking a moment to figure out how to explain it to him.

"Honestly, and this will sound a bit nutters, I'm aware, but... I thought this was all some sort of roleplay improv thing my friend set up." I paused, giving a shrug. "I'm still not entirely convinced it isn't. Who knows, she may have suddenly gotten rich, won the lottery or something and is playing some elaborate prank on me, maybe."

"Your friend would set up a role-play to have to free Loki?" He asks, sounding a little confused. I frown and wave the plushie around again. "My three favorites from the 'Avengers' movies are Loki, Tony Stark, and Steve Rogers." I pause again with a chuckle, "I assumed when it started that I would have been on the Hero side. Sarah is like that, big on the good versus evil thing. She always roots for the good guys, without fail. She likes Spider-man the best. And Thor. We both agree on Captain America, but we have different reasons, I guess."

I sort of awkwardly hand him the doll as he looks it over, flipping it over carefully with a small smile. It really was good quality. I was glad that I'd bought it, it was pretty well made and right now it was comforting.

"I like the complex characters. They fit the bill. I mean, well, fine. Loki. He's a lost prince. He spent his whole life in his brother's shadow, thinking he wasn't good enough. Only to find out that he's the boogy man, the 'monster parents tell their children about'. That he wasn't a loved but undervalued son of a king, but a stolen child of the enemy. So he becomes the 'evil' he thinks himself destined to be, I guess." I explain with a shrug. He looks at me with a curious expression, as if wondering how I'd gotten to that conclusion. I suppose it did seem a bit of a stretch. I smiled. "I mean, doesn't excuse him or anything, of course. If this is all real, I'm not going to help him kill billions of people just to get revenge on his brother. If it's all make believe, sure. No one gets hurt and sometimes it can be fun to play the bad guy. Or you know, turn the bad guy into the good guy."

I shrug. A lot of people don't understand my obsession with villains, really. I don't expect Agent Coulson of all people to either. I chuckle to myself a little bit.

"Like I said, at the beginning I thought that it was Sarah and she'd make me the hero. But she's also a theatre nerd. Wouldn't put it past her to put herself into it. Best friends pitted against each other in an epic battle? Would make a great play. Or movie. Actually, it happens often enough that I think it's actually a common plot trope..."

But now I'm rambling as he's smiling down at the Captain America plushie. I chuckle again, shaking my head slowly when I realize how crazy this whole thing seems. I feel a lot calmer after my panic attack. It happens whenever I do this. After all the adrenaline coursing through my body and going to the brink of panic, it's hard to get worked up. Well, over something like being judged for liking villains that is. If they threw me to the wolves again, that might be a different story entirely. I might freak out again.

"Why would you think this was a roleplay?" He asks me as he hands me back my plushie. I frown and shrug a little.

"Because none of this is real?" I say helplessly, indicating around me. "This is comic books and movies and cartoons and fiction. And if it's not? If this is real? I have only one question."

I'm glad he doesn't miss a beat. "What's that?"

"How the hell did I get here?" I ask, this time with a bark of laughter. It shouldn't be this funny. "I mean, this is kind of like a good way to end a perfect day, going from Comic-Con to the Avengers World! Hah."

"Why don't you tell me about this perfect day?" He asks me, and I have to wonder why it is Coulson is the one who is talking to me. I shrug and grab my camera, deciding that it would be a good idea to flip through the pictures while telling them to illustrate my point. The first one I blush at and skip over quickly. I think Sarah took that picture while I was sleeping. The next one is while I was getting dressed. Skip.

"Okay... Well... I got up, did all my morning stuff. Brush teeth, whatever. Got dressed in my costume." A picture of me as Lady Loki next to Sarah as Lady Sif. Next picture. "We went to the convention-"

"What's this one?" 'Coulson' cuts in as he points to the picture on my camera. I didn't take this picture. In fact, I'm not sure if Sarah did either. It's blurry, sideways and slightly crooked and not focused on anything in particular. It looks like the camera had been left on and someone had accidentally taken a picture. Of me handing something to two people. A teenage girl and an old woman. I frown at it and stare off into the distance as I try to remember the details of this 'scene'.

"There was a girl and an older woman who were homeless. I just bought them some breakfast. Muffins and coffee, really."

I barely remembered this event. I think for a moment, trying to remember what the old woman said to me, but shake my head and decide to continue. Clicking through the pictures as I talk.

"Well, we got to Comic-Con, stand in line for the door, there's us getting in. We wait in line to get stuff signed. We get up there and get our stuff signed by most of the cast of the 'Avengers' movie. Tom Hiddleston wasn't there at first, which made me a little sad, but right as I was getting a signature from Scarlett, he walks up and I not only get his signature, but a picture!" He stays mostly silent as I skip through the pictures, explaining how amazing my day was. Lucky incident after lucky incident. The luckiest one had been the Tom Hiddleston event, but the rest were average-lucky. Finding the comic books for a good deal. The plushie vendor having my three favorites. The gazillion and a half pictures of Sarah and I (and Jessie when she'd come later in the morning in a 'Jane Foster' costume) with various different people at the convention. How we'd won third place in one of the 'group costume' contests. Pictures of various cosplayers that I'd liked. The standard sort of pictures as I went through the day, including the bar where I got a couple of pictures kissing various other characters (including the ambiguous-Loki, a rather good Tony Stark, a male Loki and a Scarlet Witch to name a few).

The last one is another indistinct and blurry photo that I have to assume is my camera inside my bra. Finally I finish, setting down my camera and turning it off. "And then I wake up here."

"You expect me to believe that bullshit?" I jump when I hear 'Fury'. I didn't even notice him come in and now he's looking at me, angry, and annoyed, hands clasped behind his back.

"I don't know what else to tell you." I say, defeated, grabbing my Captain America plushie again and wondering how this 'Nick Fury' is making me feel like I'm five years old again. He walks in as I'm pouting. He looks over at Agent Coulson and nods.

"Dismissed, thank you Agent Coulson." He says. I sigh and lean forward, placing my head in my hands. I look back up as I hear him approach and stop a few feet away from me. Agent Coulson stands from his seat across from me, sending me a small smile and leaves the room.

'Fury' continues to stare at me for a few moments with that blank look that has me shifting uncomfortably in my seat on the bed. I'm trying not to look away, but that's a look I hate. One that my parents would give me when I was younger.

He pulls something from behind his back and I notice that it is the comic books I'd grabbed the night before. I jump in my seat when I notice them, surprisingly not damaged (obviously, at least) from my fall to the floor. 'Marvel Avengers Prelude: Fury's Big Week' issues one and two. I'd already seen all the movies, but for whatever reason, I'd never bothered to read these comics. They'd been on a really good sale from one of the vendors and I'd bought them. ($4 for all four!) I was going to read them.

"Care to tell me what these are?" He asks as he throws them down next to me on the bed. Frowning, I pick them up carefully and set them on my lap, opening issue number one after noticing some slight damage from my teeth. I cringe as I flip through the pages slowly.

"My comic books. I got them last night. Well, I got quite a few things yesterday. I was going to read these before bed." I explained quietly, flipping another page. If this was the real Nick Fury, these comic books would be incredibly weird. Not that any of this wasn't insane in the first place, but yea. Paradoxical, really. "I haven't read them. They're supposed to tie in with the movies."

Silence for a few moments more as I flipped the pages, barely skimming over the comics, the text not even looking like English to me right then. My mind is still too jumbled. I paused, coming across a note that was stuffed into the comic book and now I think I know why it was Coulson in here and not one of the other Agents. I pull it out and flash it at the 'Director'.

"Clever." I comment dryly. The note is from Sarah and it reads, _'You have to let me borrow these when you're done! It has Coulson! We love Coulson! And the Captain!'_ With a series of hearts after it. It was true, of course. They were the two characters from the Avengers Movie we agreed on without question. Things were making a bit more sense now. Nick Fury always had a plan. He didn't simply do things all willy-nilly. That much she knew. But, that did make her wonder.

"Why'd you leave me in the room with Loki's cell?" I ask him and he smirks a little at my comment. Well, smirks in the sense that he smirked when Steve handed him the ten dollar bill. Not quite a smirk for anyone else, really.

"Testing you." He answers simply. The control panel probably wouldn't have actually worked to open the door. Just the airlock. It wasn't hard, after all, to lock certain commands on computers I was used to. (Well, not hard for people who do programming stuff.) These super high tech computers? Probably even easier to lock out certain commands. I set the comics down next to me and he picks one up, holding it up as an example of his own. "I don't believe that you're from some other universe though."

"Even with everyone else here? Thor and Loki?" I ask him. He gives a short chuckle at my comment. I guess I don't understand why he wouldn't. But then again, I still don't know how I got here. Did Loki do some magic or something and that's why he's so paranoid or...? I am so glad that he decided to explain it to me.

"You appeared on my Helicarrier after some of Stark's equipment got too close to Loki's Sceptre and there was a bit of an explosion." He explained to me, tossing the comic back down next to me. "And in the middle of it, there you appear."

"So what, you think Loki summoned me here or something? Or that he had me stuck in that ball of energy in the sceptre or something? That I'm some sort of a spy?" I ask him, feeling like this is even a little bit thin. I mean, I guess I understood it, there wasn't much else to explain what was going on, and to him I guess it would make the most sense. Not to me, but you know...

"And what do you expect me to believe, Miss Samuels?" He asks me in a half-growl. "When your ID and fingerprints don't show up in our system, and there is no record of you existing?"

I can't fathom the look that I'm giving him right then because... I apparently don't exist here. Like, I simply do not exist. My head starts spinning again and I hear my voice say 'what?' very weakly. Instead of waiting for an answer, I absently grab the comics and set them on the table, grab my plush and lie down, my headache returning to me. Lying back, I close my eyes and ignore the man. Whatever with this insanity. I can not do this anymore. I hear footsteps leading out and, pulling the sheet over me and clutching the Cap plush to my chest, I try to will myself to sleep. I do hear Fury as he leaves the room however, making one last comment to me.

"You are confined to these quarters until we figure out who you are and what you're doing here."

o0o

When next I wake up, it is because I fall out of my little hospital bed when the whole ship(?) lurches uncertainly to one side. I land on the floor, my table knocked to one side and my things that had been on it where scattered across the floor. Me, of course, practically on top of half of them, wondering how in the hell I keep getting injured. I groan, I'm hurting all over again. This is not fun. Not at all. You'd think if I was sent to another universe for whatever reason, it would be more important, or at least more interesting, than constantly falling on my ass and getting myself injured. As a matter of fact, why was I here? Maybe I was too big of a believer in fate rather than chance or some other silly nonsense of the sort, but it didn't make sense to me that I would simply appear here because I fell over and hit my head. That would be a very pathetic magical power.

I lie there for an uncertain amount of time, cringing in pain and wondering what's going on when someone whooshes open the door. I look over as I sit up, groaning. They're wearing a SHIELD uniform, but there is a look on his face that gives me the willies.

"You're an odd prisoner." He states simply, but shrugs. I can hear footsteps coming down towards us and he turns and shoots them. My eyes are wide when I realize why it must be that he gave me the willies. He was one of Loki's men. "But you might want to abandon ship."

That's all he says before he walks off. I know what's going on now. This is when Loki breaks out. I certainly have bad timing, don't I? I should probably stay in my room so that I don't, well, you know DIE. After all, this is not exactly anything that I have any sort of experience with. I can't fight, I'm not even in the shape for it. I would very likely end up getting myself killed.

So why am I practically crawling over to the door instead of hiding in a corner? I'm going to assume it's because I am a nice person and I hear someone groaning in pain and I'm thinking I can drag them in here with me and hope that I remember enough first aid from when I was in high school to make sure they don't die. That's what I'd like to believe it is, but as soon as I stick my head out the door and see the actually SHIELD agent, clutching their gut and realizing that I really have no idea what they're doing is when I realize that's not the case. Really, I'm just crazy at this point. I go over to the man and he looks up at me. I'm flailing a little, having no idea what to do.

"What do I need to do?" I ask him desperately, hoping he has more medical knowledge than me. Of course, as luck would have it, he doesn't, and he decides instead to give me an order.

"Stop Loki." He groans, taking his out a handgun out and pressing it into my hands. Wide eyed and having no idea what else to do, I take it and sit there for a moment staring at him before he speaks, "Go."

Yup. Officially bat-shit crazy. Because that's exactly what I do. I stand up and run to where I think I remember Loki's cell being. I suppose I can't argue. Some guy, some soldier, just gave me his dying request to help with all of this. Who am I to say no? Not that I know how to fire a gun. I don't even think I'm holding it right. This is the first time I've ever actually held a gun. And guns are freaking heavy. I'm on my way over to the cell and I realize I have no idea what I'll do if the doors aren't open. I'll probably stand there like an idiot, really. I'm trying to ignore the smell of burning somewhere, the people I'm stepping over and everything else that's going on. If I do, I think I'm going to start retching and I'll have another panic attack. It must be adrenaline, because I don't have any idea how I'm standing.

And suddenly I'm in front of the last set of doors, which are luckily open for me, when I hear Coulson. "Step away please."

I know what's going to happen, and here I am, standing close enough to do something about it and. Oh my God, I really am freaking crazy. I'm starting to think that this whole spectacle has a purpose, but I step in carefully into the room with Loki's cell and I see Loki standing behind Coulson with his sceptre, prepared to strike. And something propels me forward, running into Loki. And I say something because it certainly isn't my brain. Because me running into the God of Mischief doesn't really do much of anything. He still stabs Coulson, and I don't think I affected him at all. He swipes at me with his arm, as one would a fly and I go flying back into the railing behind me. And oh my god it hurts. I hit the railing so hard with my back that I know it'll bruise. And it feels like a may have cracked a rib. And my head is spinning and painful once again. The gun the soldier handed me is officially gone, as well. Skidded off somewhere. Probably for the best.

Loki presses the button, sending Thor plummeting down to Earth. He'll be fine. I'm crawling over to Coulson, wincing with every movement. This whole thing is insane already, but I like Coulson. I don't want him to die. I approach him just as he fires the 'Destroyer Gun' at Loki, sending him back and through the wall.

"So that's what it does." He says with a slight smile on his face. I sit up and flail once again, looking at him helplessly.

"Don't die, oh my God, don't die Coulson!" I'm muttering and after remembering what you're supposed to do, I press my hands against the wound. I really have no idea if it will do any good, but I am trying it anyways, ignoring the gun across his lap. He's watching me with a slightly curious expression for a moment.

"Get his sceptre." He tells me. I pause, looking over at where Loki went through the wall, then back at Coulson. He nods at me and I let go of the wound, my hands covered in blood and stand up, shaking terribly as I walk over. I stumble on the step, but I keep going. I step through the hole and look around. And see nothing. My breathing is starting to pick up.

Loki suddenly appears in front of me and I make a rather pathetic sounding noise that is somewhere between a scream and a squeak.

"I don't want any more delays." He growls at me, grabbing my arm tightly and turning me around so that I'm facing Coulson. His gun is making that 'humming' charged noise again and Loki is using me as a meat shield. I stay between the God of Mischief and Coulson and the Agent doesn't shoot at us, at him, again. He brings me out of the room with him and pauses there for a moment, sending me a wicked look back. "You were good for something, at least. Though I certainly didn't bring you here."

Clutching my chest as I feel my heart rate continue to rise, I glare at him. Or try to. My eyes are too wide to actually be glaring, in the end as I'm bent over, panting slightly. He turns to walk away, leaving me there to fend for myself.

"Thanos certainly didn't send me." I bite out to his back as he steps away. When I say this, he stops, turning towards me with wide eyes. I realize what I said and step back, stumbling slightly over a piece of... Something. Or nothing. I'm starting to shake again.

"How do you-" He growls dangerously, taking a step forward, his eyes narrowing. The ship lurches uncertainly again, pitching me forward slightly, sending me falling forward and hitting my head once again. The world goes black again.

o0o

This time when I wake up I feel a hell of a lot worse than I did the first time I'd woken up in this insanity. My back is killing me, and I can practically feel the marks on it. The front of my chest is hurting, where I am now starting to think that I did more than crack a rib. My head is pounding as well. I whimper, clutching myself and not even bothering to stop the tears. My whole world is spinning and I don't want to open my eyes as I feel someone grab my arm.

"Wake up, girl." I don't recognize the voice, but it's loud and right next to my ear. Someone else says something in the background that I can't understand them. I don't care though, but I feel a needle go into my arm before I pass out again.

o0o

The pain is definitely dampened when I wake up this time, though. I can still feel the dull pain well, everywhere on my body, but its just that. Dull. I open my eyes and find everything blurry. I blink a few times as my contacts readjust, dry as they are and shifting uncomfortably against my eyeball. I do not want to be here. Wherever here is. I force myself to sit up when I find no answers in the ceiling. And recognize vaguely where I am. Inside of Stark Towers.

"What...?" Is what I ask before Loki comes into my line of sight once again. He grabs me by the front of my shirt and looks slightly desperate.

"How did you know about the Titan?" He asks me, a desperate, pleading and angry bite to his voice. I'm trying to talk, but my mouth opens and closes without forming words of its own accord. He growls and shoves me back unto the couch, leaving me there and walking away. "I have a battle to win. You will tell me after."

I nod, numbly, and look around. This whole thing is freaking crazy and I do not want to be here. I notice, however, what I'm close to and decide why the hell not. Standing up, I get barely even a glance from the Asgardian as I stumble my way to the bar. I still think I am absolutely crazy and you know what will help me cure that at this point. Liquor. My hands are shaking and my mind feels fuzzy when I look at the unlabeled bottles, my vision still a bit blurry. I open one, sniff it and sigh with some joy. It's rum. I love rum. I don't even bother grabbing a glass before I hobble back over to the couch, plopping myself down on it and taking a long drag of the liquid.

It is really good rum, even. I sigh a little happily as I find myself sinking into the couch and hear a sort of muffled explosion from above, ignoring what is around me as best as I can. If I am going to die as collateral in this, at least I'm going to do it drunk.

Iron Man appears a few minutes later, and I can hear him from my seat. I'm starting to feel the liquor, mixed with whatever else is in me at this point and I'm having a hard time focusing on what they're saying. Except some parts which make me chuckle.

"Care for a drink?" Tony offers Loki. I bark out a laugh and hold up the bottle of rum I looted from his bar.

"I got some!" I say.

"What are you doing here, with my rum!" Tony asks, surprised. I laugh.

"I dunno. Just hoping I don't die." I answer before lying down on the couch and ignoring the next few words of conversation between the two men. I think they start to ignore me, because I don't hear my name or anything.

But I do hear it when Tony is thrown through the window. And for next hour, two hours, however long the battle actually lasts, I'm sitting there nursing my bottle of rum and waiting for the battle to end. Loki doesn't come over to ask me about Thanos again, and I'm glad, because he seems too busy with everything else that's going on to bother. I am not a fighter, and I'm already beaten up pretty badly from my one small attempt at trying to be one. So I sit here and watch absently as everything happens. I can see out one of the windows, and every time I see one of the Chitauri aliens go by, I make a face at them.

And I wave at the Hulk when he comes smashing in and attacking Loki after his little speech. The green beast sees me, but keeps walking. I am very obviously not a threat to anyone right now. Or ever, really. Soon the battle is over and I hear Loki says his amusing line from the end of the movie.

"If it's all the same to you, I think I'll have that drink now." I hear him. I chuckle.

"I've some!" I slur-shout at him. They all seem to realize that I'm still there and after Thor produces cuffs and the mouth guard for Loki, they come over to me. I'm sitting there with the bottle of rum when Steve and Tony come over to me. "Hi there Avengers! I think I'm drunk now. Can I come with you to get shawarma? I think it'll make me less drunk."

The two men look over at each other and shrug. Steve helps me up and soon we're on our way to the small restaurant before even worrying about what to do with Loki, since he's gagged and chained. I do have to admit that I feel pretty special as I'm eating this shawarma with the Avengers who just saved the world while I just sat there drunk in Stark Tower hoping that I didn't get injured any more. I hid like a coward for the final battle for Earth. Not that I could have done anything. After all, I'm not a super hero.

After shawarma though, they give me back over to Fury while Loki and Thor return to Asgard. At least at this point, I am definitely feeling a lot less drunk. Except whatever it was that they gave me earlier is started to fade and my body is starting to hurt again. But they put me in an infirmary with some other SHIELD agents instead of in a locked cell and I have to wonder why. I don't get time to ask Fury, however, as he leaves, probably to talk to the council. I pass out on the infirmary bed, oddly hearing a familiar voice in the bed next to mine. One I don't think I should hear, but that I'm too tired to figure out why.

* * *

**AN: Hey there! Hope this wasn't too far! I had to try and balance her 'role' in the movie without having her be a 'hero' or having her just sit there in her room for the events. Because that would be boring. So, next chapter we'll officially be getting to the silly and the fluff. And finding out the aftermath of the battle. For everyone. :) If you guys have any guesses, I'd love to hear them. ;) As always, reviews are loved!  
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	4. Chapter 3

**Ichigo55: Definitely was longer. And damn it, I can't seem to make it as fluffy as originally intended! Oh well. lol  
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**Bandnerd2669: I thought it would be an interesting spin. There will be some action later on, but I'm trying to veer from the movie.  
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**Taylor: Thanks for the love. :)  
**

**SceneNeko: Never fear, there will be more of the God of Mischief for all of the Loki-Lovers.  
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**Smartkitty314: I'm glad you're enjoying. And I'm hoping for a Loki redemption arc in Thor 2 as well. Or at least a partial one. He is far too cute. There will be losts of my three favorites in this story. :3 And in regards to what she does in the story, I will say this: Just because someone doesn't think they're useful, doesn't mean that's the case. ;)  
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* * *

**The Wish Assistant  
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By Adrienne Valentine

**Chapter Three  
**

* * *

The first week after the super massive battle for Earth... The introduction of the Avengers... Whatever it's called... I call it the first days of my adventure. Because I am really not sure what else to call it anymore. After that battle I realized that this was not set up by Sarah. Obviously. She would not have had me so badly injured. Broken ribs are not fun, and I have to say that my back was a very... interesting pattern of purple, green and black. My feet had gotten rather cut up from running around during that battle. I had, after all, not gotten any shoes until after I had gotten shawarma with the Avengers. My pants had been completely ruined between blood stains and tears, but somehow, luckily, the shirt that I'd gotten from Steve had remained intact. Well, mostly. There was a slight bloodstain on the very edge of the shirt, but that was about it. It was my favorite shirt to wear since then.

I spent that first week in recovery, mostly lying in bed and feeling very pathetic. Fury had kept a hold of my comics, telling me that he didn't think that it would be good for everyone to see them. And told me not to tell everyone about the whole 'alternate universe' thing. At the very least it would freak some people out. He had given me back my Captain plush though, which was pretty much always with me.

I didn't see any of the Avengers in that first week, either, mostly just making conversation with my fellow infirm. The first Avenger I saw was Black Widow. I hadn't really seen her at all before the battle, so I had had nothing to go off of. She visited me quite a bit after the first week, actually. She either liked me (for whatever reason) or she was 'assigned' to me to get more information about where I came from and such. Obviously, my story didn't change. They probably caught on to the small things I lied about, but most of the time never asked.

By the end of the second week, I had (sort of) convinced her to start trying to teach me how to fight. She agreed. After I took a basic self-defense course from SHIELD. Of course, basic self-defense from SHIELD didn't mean the same thing as it did for anywhere else. Luckily, I had to be cleared first. Broken ribs take a while to heal. Since I'm still young enough, I was definitely better off than some of the other patients when it came to that.

Week three consisted of me being told that I am now a SHIELD agent (on probation, sort of) until further notice. I was not allowed to leave SHEILD property however. For any reason. Fury was not yet convinced that I wasn't a spy for someone, but he didn't think I was a threat, and I'd gained some measure of trust after trying to bull-rush Loki. I was then 'renamed' to Adrienne Daniels for working at SHIELD. Adrienne had, apparently, died on the helicarrier when Loki's men attacked. I assumed her identity immediately after the attack unofficially, though Fury didn't tell me why or that I had until that week. He then proceeded to stick me with the task of paperwork. Lots of paperwork.

Week four and five were filled with more paperwork and short visits from Natasha. I hated the paperwork. None of it was interesting, mostly just alibis for various agents. Actually, week five he let me write someone's alibi. That was fun. I got to do that on occasion, but every time I would try to have fun with it, he'd hand me the piece of paper containing said alibi with a flat look. Pouting doesn't work on Nick Fury to get him to change his mind.

Week six though was when I realized that my pouting might have been doing something. Because that's when he re-assinged me. That was two days ago. He'd told me I was reassigned, but he'd neglected to mention where, or what I was going to be doing. He just told me that I needed to pack my bags and be ready to go in two days time. I was to wait in my room until someone got me.

Which brings me to now. I'm sitting on my small bed in my 'room', my things packed away into two bags: The things that had been locked away in my locker since I got here and the things that I'd been given and 'gifted'. Mostly clothing so I didn't have to walk around in the same outfit everyday. My Captain Plush was in the top of my second bag. I would feel stupid just walking around with it, but I still liked having 'him' close. Yup. Totally felt like a child, but this whole thing was still surreal to me.

I was about to start going through the bag that had my locker things (I hadn't packed it and it certainly looked bigger than it should), when the door opened. I smiled up at my 'escort', grabbing my things and standing. He waited for me patiently as I ran around the room once to make sure I'd gotten everything, before turning and leading the way out of the sleeping quarters.

"So, how was Portland?" I ask him as we're walking. He smiles a little back at me at my question.

"It was great. I'm going to have to thank Stark for that." He answers, and I have to chuckle at that. We both know that thanking Tony Stark for something nice he did can end up being awkward as the narcissist loves gratitude. He knows from experience, I only know from second hand knowledge.

He pauses for a moment, before reaching back and grabbing my second bag from me gently. I smile at the action as we continue, but I keep a close eye on him as we continue. He still isn't in the best shape; a stab wound to the gut can do that to you, after all. I had had two broken ribs to recover from and I still wasn't technically up to fighting shape. He had had two broken ribs, a lacerated liver and a 'pneumothorax condition' (a nicked lung, basically). It will be at least another month before he's allowed to go on assignments again, he told me so. Twice that before he's allowed to pull any hero stunts. I don't want him straining himself over me. Over a bag. That'd just be silly.

He must notice my rapt attention because he glances back and chuckles. "It's not far."

I nod, and we continue in silence the rest of the way. It is a comfortable silence, though. He pretends not to notice when I look over at him to see if he's alright, and I don't ask if he is. It isn't until we reach the top deck when it starts getting noisy. The base had been on water this time instead of in the air, which is where I preferred it. But the bright light blinded me for a moment as we stepped out. I could barely see anything, but I followed for a few steps more before I could see, looking up to find Tony Stark standing there, waving at us. I'm a little surprised to see him there, but one glance tells me that this is the plan.

"Coulson!" Tony calls as we get close to him. I'm not sure how well he remembers me as he claps Coulson on the shoulder in a friendly gesture. "How was Portland?"

"It was great, thank you." He responds in his usual subdued manner. The billionaire nods with a smile.

"Good, good." He answers simply, not dragging it out before he suddenly turns towards me. "Hey there's the little lush!" Oh. So he does remember me. I stick out my tongue at him defiantly, feeling a little shy. This is actually the first time I'd met Tony Stark while not drunk, and that seems to be what he remembers. "So Fury tells me he wants you out of his base. Being the magnanimous person I am, I offered to have you come work at the Avengers Tower. As long as you don't drink all my liquor."

I frown at him a little before I speak. "Not all of it, just the rum." I tell him with a shrug. He chuckles at me.

Someone I don't recognize appears from... Somewhere and takes my bag from Coulson, who gives a nod. He offers to take mine and I shrug him off, clutching it tightly. It's barely a backpack, so I have no issue with carrying it. He pauses for a moment, glancing at the other two men, who give shrugs in response. He takes the bag onto the small plane behind him and we stand there for a moment more. I don't mind flying, but this seems like a big step into something else. I'm finding myself nervous. But I smile when I feel a hand placed on my shoulder. I don't even have to look over to know who it is, and I turn to him and pull him into a hug. He gives me a small hug back before I pull back, and smile at Tony.

"Let's go, Iron Man." I joke casually, determined to ignore my nervousness about all of this. He made an amusingly grand sweeping gesture towards the plane, waiting for me to go ahead of him. With a laugh, I did just that. The man who had taken my bag onto the plane is gone, leaving me alone with the Tony Stark.

I take a seat near the front of the plane, not quite sure what to talk about as I take off my backpack and set it down next to me. Luckily, the billionaire-genius-playboy-philanthropist seems to hate silence.

"Drink?" He asks me as he indicates towards a small bar next to him. I nod as he pours me some.

"Oh thank God, yes. Fury hasn't let me drink since the battle." I tell him as he hands me the small glass of liquor. I take a sip. Rum. Of course. I smirk a little at him.

"So, how was that going for you? Locked away like Fury's virgin daughter?" He asks as he pours himself a drink. I nearly choke on mine when he asks that before laughing.

"Terrible!" I tell him, unable to hold back my amusement. "No booze, no sex, no fun. Just lots of paperwork."

"That doesn't surprise me at all. That man wouldn't know fun if it dragged him out and threw him a party." He tells me, and we both have a laugh at that. Its true. I'd spent the last six weeks with the man monitoring almost everything I did like some sort of over-protective father. Or, perhaps more correctly, like he didn't trust me not to do anything I shouldn't yet. I think, if it wasn't for the fact that no one knew how I'd gotten here or the fact that my story was a bit of a stretch even to them, I wouldn't have gotten all this attention. It didn't help that all information I could provide about Loki, his plans, and Thanos, were so vague that there was no promise of anything and-

"Earth to Amelia." Tony called to me, waving a hand in my face. I jump slightly and blush, feeling thoroughly embarrassed that I had drifted off while Tony Stark had been talking to me. Very rude.

"Sorry." I murmur. He shrugs it off, leaning back with his drink and a small smirk on his face.

"It's alright, I'm used to it." He said and I give him a curious look as his grin spread wider across his face. "You are, after all, in the presence of the great Tony Stark. The Invincible Iron Man. You know, all that fun stuff."

"Oh, how could I forget?" I tease back, "I was busy swooning in your presence."

"I already have a girlfriend, though, sorry about that." He said with a shrug, "But I hear you like the Capsicle too."

I laugh at his sudden deflection there, wondering where it came from. I didn't expect him to change the topic away from himself and unto someone else. Especially Steve. Taking another sip, I send him another curious expression, nodding slightly.

"That man needs to get laid, desperately." He says, continuing with his half-serious tone as he talks, "I mean, he might be a little old for you, but he looks great for being ninety something years old."

"Oh, I know. I got a first hand strip show when I arrived." I tell him with a laugh, remembering the events with some fondness. I hadn't seen the Captain since the events of New York either. "But I wasn't aware this reassignment was some covert mission for me to be a hooker, here."

He waves off my comment absently as he continues, ignoring the implications that I'm giving. Likely due to the sarcastic, teasing tone I've taken with him and the smile spreading across my face. I'm not offended by the implications, just as amused as he is.

"Well, you know, that's not the Fury approved mission for you, but he did say I could assign you to do whatever I needed." He answers and the ridiculousness of the idea making me shake my head.

"Oh, of course, because that's what's important, getting Steve laid." I tease him, leaning forward with my drink in my hand. "Not gonna complain too much, here, but I do know how to do, you know, actual stuff."

"Like what?" I give him an annoyed look at his comment, but he clarifies, "Fury hasn't been very forthcoming with details about you. Last he gave us any information was when you and Agent Romanoff starting becoming BFFs, saying he doesn't think you're going to randomly going to kill anybody. So, what's the deal?"

"I dunno, like I told him, where I come from, you exist only as story character. Like Harry Potter and Peter Pan. But in comic books and movies mostly." I explain, and this time he simply listens for a few moments. He may have already known this bit, I suspect since he doesn't look surprised, but I'm not going to ask right then what he knows. "I was at a convention for all of us Comic Book nerds, just returned from drinking, when I tripped, smacked my head and woke up here."

"Yea, I saw the comic books that you came with. Really interesting stuff there. Pretty freaky." He answers, but again, none of this seems new to him. "But what about before you wound up here?"

"Just graduated about two months before. Double majored for my Bachelors in English and Psychology. It was my first big outing after years of my nose being constantly buried in a book and not having a social life. I kind of only survived because of my friend Sarah. " I give a short laugh at this. At the start of college, I weighed about fifty pounds more, and lost most of it because I was running around campus to class half the time, forgetting to eat, and in general running myself ragged. I hadn't taken summer breaks off, and had nearly had a couple breakdowns because of it. Sarah had been constantly making sure I didn't over-exert myself. I pause, not liking the personal direction this is starting to go. "So I can do marketing stuff, I guess. I have training in that. My college's English department covered that a lot."

"And you're a shrink in training!" He said with a laugh. If he noticed my topic change, he didn't say anything about it. I suppose the man was used to doing it often enough himself. He stops and seems to think for a moment, considering it before smiling widely, "That could be fun. Alright, you got yourself a job."

o0o

We landed near the Avengers Tower, met with Happy and took a car the rest of the way. This would be my second time to the Avengers Tower (formerly 'Stark Tower'), and the first time actually arriving here conscious! As we turned into the underground parking lot, I had to admit, the repairs to the city, and to the tower, were done pretty quickly. Well, the clean up was. There was still construction in various places that we had passed by, but apparently (and Tony had decided to brag about this one) he had donated a significant amount of money to the reconstruction of the city, and helped in organizing some fundraisers.

The car came to a stop and Happy was quickly there to open my door for me. It was not something I was used to, but I smiled at the driver as I stepped out of the car with my small bag as he went to grab the second one. Tony appears beside me as we make our way into the Tower, very proud of his 'baby'. Pepper's 'baby'. Whichever it is. The doors whoosh open and the entry way here is non-descript, but you an practically hear the electricity and technology running through this place.

"Here we go." Tony says, as a door opens to the side a few feet into the hallway.

We enter a small elevator that, to be honest, I wouldn't have noticed if Tony hadn't been leading the way. Stepping in, the way up is the first time when Tony is quiet for any length of time. Well, not talking. He's still humming to himself as the elevator goes up, checking something on his phone. Texting, perhaps. The doors ping open and I'm only slightly surprised to see Pepper standing there waiting for us with a smile.

"Hello Miss Samuels." She says, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that she knows my name. She probably knew I was coming too. I don't think Tony is very good at keeping secrets. He didn't seem very good in the movies, after all. I shift a little bit as Tony steps out, leading the way.

"Hello Miss Potts." I respond with a slight smile at how formal she is, "Call me Amy."

I'm too busy admiring the place where I'm going to be staying to be paying much attention to the small talk that's going on as I'm led to my personal room in Avengers Tower, where I put down my stuff and I'm left as Pepper and Tony are apparently late for some sort of meeting or another. I wave them off with a small smile as they leave. Leaving me, very conveniently, to my own devices. JARVIS hasn't said a word since we arrived and this fact makes me curious. So I'm going to test it.

"JARVIS? You in this building?" I ask as I leave my room to wander around.

"Hello Miss Samuels." The AI responds. "I did not know you were aware of me."

I smirk a little at the computer as I walk back out to where we had entered. The common room. Living room. Whatever it was.

"Tony likely told you my background?" I ask the computer, not waiting for a response before I continue, "I know more than just that. This shit is still new to me though. Where am I allowed to go in this tower?"

"Technically, Miss Samuels, you are required to stay in the tower unless escorted by a member of SHIELD." I nod to myself as I walk around the common room, assessing the room, with the seating area, TV to one side, and more doors off to the side. I smile. _Door one, two, or three?_ "This floor and the three above and the four below are the living quarters here. Including kitchens, bedrooms, a gym, and a library to name a few."

Oh, a library! That sounds awesome. Now, just to find all these things and. Hm. Wait, bedrooms? This seems set up as if it people are expected to live here. A significant number of people. He didn't say 'guest rooms' after all, and he mentioned living quarters. Is it odd to refer to the AI as a he? Should I say 'ze' or some other neutral pronoun? It is a computer system, after all, I'm not really sure what it is that I am expected to call it. Let's go with 'he' for now. JARVIS was originally 'Edwin Jarvis' in the comics, after all, so we'll go with that. I am totally over-thinking this.

_Door three it is._ The kitchen is behind door three. It's large, but it has a bar and I practically jump for joy when I notice the espresso machine. I do love my coffee, after all. I'm trying to find the stairs when I hear someone else coming in through door two. My initial, very silly instinct is to jump to the side behind some sort of furniture. Of course, I'm not lucky enough to have anything to dive behind, and I would very likely have face planted into whatever it was anyways. So I feel a little awkward when I'm standing there like a deer in the headlights and Steve Rogers aka Captain America walks in. Sweaty, shirtless and over all, sexy looking. He doesn't immediately notice me, but when he does, he looks surprised.

I don't think he knew I was coming. But he smiles over at me, holding up one hand in a wave. "Hey there Miss Samuels."

My face feels hot as I remember what Tony has 'suggested' I do. Mind, I am very tempted to at this point. Especially since he already has his shirt off and I smile, my shyness coming up once again. Now that I know that this isn't some roleplay and he's actually standing there, shirtless.

"It's Amelia, or Amy." I say as he starts to walk over. I smirk at him a little bit, glancing at his bare chest."I still have that shirt of yours, you know."

He does it again, like he did when I first woke up here. He seems to suddenly realize he doesn't have a shirt on. This time, however, his cheeks turn a little pink and he grabs the shirt that's hanging over his shoulder and pulls it on.

"Sorry about that." He mutters slightly, and I have to give a laugh. As if I really minded the view. His seeming new-found shyness making me feel a bit more confident. "What are you doing here Miss-uh- Amelia?"

"Well, turns out I just moved in. I'm gonna be working for Tony, so..." I pause, suddenly getting an idea with a wicked grin tugging at the corners of my mouth, "Would you mind showing me around?"

"Oh, I was going to take a shower first, but-" He starts, and I take the chance when he pauses. Jumping in like a lioness. Well, like a kitten pretending to be a lioness.

"Well, you could show me that, but we should get to know each other first." I tease. It takes him a second before it clicks and I have to admit, the way he blushes at the comment amuses me greatly. Now I definitely understand what Tony was saying. He still doesn't really seem to know how to talk to women in any sort of... non-business situation. I send him a reassuring smile. Or at least the best I can manage through my amusement. "You can shower after. I'll end up getting lost if you don't show me around. You don't want that, do you?"

He chuckles at me at this point. I think now I broke the ice enough that he understands I'm just teasing him. He must be used to it from Stark by now. Or he thinks it's all just a joke. It makes me wonder, briefly, if he still has the insecurities left over from Pre-Super Soldier Serum when it comes to certain things. I follow his lead through the eight levels of the 'living quarters' of Avengers Tower, as I smile politely and pretend that I'm actually paying attention to what he is actually saying. Instead, I'm more taking the time to admire how attractive he is and how polite he is. Very old fashioned.

The library is where I veer a little off course, actually ducking in and scanning the books for a few moments. I'm slightly surprised that Tony doesn't have everything digital by now, since their technology is ahead of ours, but this might have been Pepper's doing instead, having paper copies of all these books. Like JARVIS said, there is a Gym, lots of bedrooms, a second kitchen on another floor, a game room, and a few unfurnished rooms that haven't been made into any thing yet. Waiting for whoever will be moving in to move in, I guess. It's an odd idea, but the comics had included the Avengers Mansion, and this did seem a substitute for that.

Despite that I don't take some of the opportunities to tease him when they come up because he still doesn't seem to be too comfortable. Whether it's me making him uncomfortable or the situation, I'm not sure, so I don't want to push him too much.

But I do get a good feel for the part of the building that I'm going to be living in. And he walks me back to my room like a gentleman. Or at least I assume it's back to my room. Until I realize that he's standing outside the door opposite of mine instead. He doesn't know where my room is, after all, if he didn't know I was going to be here.

"Well, that's everything." He tells me with a small shrug. I smile."This is actually my room, if you need anything..."

He trials off and I resist the urge to make any sexual references at his comment. It would simply be too easy at this point. Instead I nod, suppressing my wicked grin and the over-whelming urge to tease the man.

"I think I'll go unpack then. You go ahead and take your shower." I tell him and he smiles back at me, as he turns away, I can't help but notice how tight his pants are (not for the first time, of course) and take the chance to be a little bit of a brat. Pulling back my hand, I reach back before giving him a light smack on the ass. "Thanks Steve."

I don't stick around to see his reaction, fleeing into my room with a blush of my own. I really cannot believe I just did that. Oh well. It was fun. I'll find out later if that makes this whole thing totally awkward or if he manages to just shrug it off. It's hard to tell at this point, but as I'm leaning against my closed door and don't hear any footsteps for a moment, I decide to listen to see if I can hear anything.

"What...?" Is all I hear before footsteps and a door shutting. This is going to be fun.

* * *

******AN: Fun hinting at some things in the last chapter. Again, fear not Loki fans, he will not fade quietly into the night. Sorry this one taking so long. I've been a little sick. So weekend update may be slow. This one was more of a transition to get to the more amusing parts. Reviews keep this silly thing rolling! :3 Love! 3  
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	5. Chapter 4

**Vex Matthewson: Thanks! I'm having fun writing her interactions with Steve. He really is too awkward around women. It's cute. And with a butt like he has, you can't avoid smacking it! haha  
**

**TBone2011: I'm so glad you got that reference! That makes me happy. I love that game too. I'm glad it's turning out too. :)  
**

**Marskatr: There are people making hand-made Avengers Plushies. I don't know if there are any licensed ones, though. Steve is easy to tease. Well, really, nice virgin boys are easy to tease... (Not that I have any experience with that... haha)  
**

**SmartKitty314: Oh, it may come up later. Partially, at least. And the fun will increase when Loki returns. Of course. :p  
**

**Bandnerd2669: Yea, Steve-flirting is fun. lol. And I couldn't let Phil die! He's one of my favorites. I'm glad the transitioning is good, because there will be instances of similar transitions throughout.  
**

* * *

**The Wish Assistant  
**

By Adrienne Valentine

**Chapter Four  
**

* * *

I arrived to the new Avengers Towers on Sunday. I call it 'Day Zero', for easy reference. It also made the whole thing much more interesting. Of course, Tony found out on day one and has taken to teasing me about it, pretending that I was narrating my life. Which, you know, maybe I was doing on occasion. I had done it when I thought I was alone in the kitchen and Tony had been calling for me. Why, I don't exactly know, but he did call. While I was in the middle of saying to no one in particular: "Day one at the Avengers Tower includes a lack of decent coffee... "

At which point Tony's face appeared on a screen that I didn't even know was there, against the wall opposite of the fridge.

"Day two the narrator starts work."

Which of course meant that today, (day two), that I did not quite know what to expect when I came into 'work'. Of course, when I say work, what I really mean is I got dressed in the only work acceptable clothing I had. My skirted SHIELD uniform. Aside from that I only really had a few other pieces of clothing. Mostly sleep clothing, actually. I frowned a little bit because the other part about coming into 'work' was that I didn't exactly know where it was I was going to be working. Tony hadn't told me what level it was.

So there I was standing in the common room on my level, in my SHIELD uniform in the morning when I realized that I had no idea what was going on.

"JARVIS?" I ask the AI, "Do you know where I am supposed to go to start work?"

There was no response from the AI system. I didn't know if this was because it wasn't 'present' here at the moment, or because it was finding out for me. Or Tony was messing with me. Either way, I felt stupid standing there in the SHIELD uniform, waiting. I was standing there for a few more moments before I decided to see if I could find my way around here. JARVIS could find me if I got lost at the very least, after all. I found the elevator from before easily enough. It was just a matter of getting it to open... Except then it 'dinged' without me pressing anything and I waited to see who had decided to come up. Hopefully it was Tony. In the end, my luck would have it that it was Steve. This time wearing a shirt, but still sweaty.

"Are you always working out?" I ask him as he starts to step out, looking at something in his hands. He looks up suddenly and stops in his tracks. Half in and half out of the elevator. "Or are you just appearing all sweaty for my benefit?"

I'm smirking at him again and he looks down at himself, and I think I'm seeing a slight pink tint to his cheeks. Wow, this is almost like flirting with a high school-er with how easy it is. Of course, I suspect that there were few women in the forties that were this forward. There was that blonde in the movie, but... He jumps forward when the door starts closing on him, and he is suddenly there, right in front of me. He's all sweat and muscles and I don't even have to reach out to touch him. I feel my cheeks heat up of their own accord. Great, now I'm the one feeling like the high school-er, blushing because he's close to me. Why am I so freaking ridiculous... and how is it that he can smell this good right after working out.

"A girl is going to start getting ideas if you keep on like this, Captain." I tease and he comes back to reality.

"Sorry there, Amelia. Uh... What are you doing in a SHIELD uniform?" He asks as he steps back, taking in my appearance. I shift uncomfortably on my feet. Yup. I feel very stupid right about now. I frown down at myself. Not that the uniform looks good on me, really. While it is my size, technically, I feel awkward in it. SHIELD agents are, as a rule, tall, thin and, well, generally in shape. I am not any of those, really. Next to the handsome, fit and tall Steve, I feel well, very self-conscious all of a sudden. Odd, I suppose, because I wasn't this self-conscious when I first met him, or my first day at the Avengers tower when he'd shown me around. Ah. That's right. Liquor. Hm. Oh wait, I haven't answered him, have I? Opps.

"I'm working for Tony now. I think. Director Fury sent me here and Tony offered me a job and he said today was my first day and..." Rambling. Stop it. Now. "This is the only sort of 'work clothes' that I have. So..."

"Oh. Well, they look nice." Steve comments. I don't believe him, really, he's just trying to be nice, but I smile anyways, nodding and...

Ding!

The elevator opens again and I look past the sweaty man to the elevator and I only get notice that it's Tony before he speaks.

"What's this? Is Cap here keeping you from getting to work?" He teases before he steps out, taking a look at what I'm wearing with a frown. "What are you wearing?"

"Work clothes?" I say timidly. He shakes his head.

"No, go put on normal clothes." He pauses, grins and sends a look at Steve and I get the distinct feeling that he enjoys making the man uncomfortable as well. "Cap, why don't you help her with that? I'll wait."

He looks shocked at Tony's suggestion and I bust out laughing. I don't know whether its from the comment or my laughter, but that pink tinge returns to his cheeks. Yea, I am starting to like having that tinge there. Doesn't help that it's easy to get there. I shake my head as I'm chuckling, but I turn and walk off, heading back to my room to change. I have a pair of jeans and I'll figure something else out. First day of work in jeans and a tee shirt. Looking like a good job so far.

o0o

I found out by day three that I would be working from inside the Avengers Tower, largely by myself since I was still restricted. I had met with the Marketing Director for Stark Industries who had decided that I would probably be best dealing with the Iron Man and Avengers media since I knew a fair amount about that, while I knew almost nothing about the science-y stuff of Stark Industries. Get the public opinion of the heroes high. To me, the answer was pretty simple. People did like heroes, after all.

So it was a matter of marketing them as heroes separately from their 'alternate identity' and aiming more for a program like I was used to for comic book heroes. Which worked out fine. The bottom two levels of the Tower (potentially three levels at a later time) were essentially a 'visitor's center' and there was going to be a fundraiser party going on this Saturday. Funds were donated to rebuilding New York. My job was some last minute intensive campaigning.

It was exhausting. Friday morning, or day five, I was informed that I had to attend, which meant getting new clothes. Which meant a SHIELD Agent had to go with me shopping. Who turned out to be Natasha. Which wasn't bad after you got past the bored-sounding responses and the fact that she looked so much better in pretty much everything. She was coming as well, of course, so she was seeing if she needed a new dress, and as she tried on her fifth dress with me, I was beginning to wonder if she merely wanted one. I had bought mine already, and that's how I figured that she wanted a dress of her own. She insisted that I try on more, however. 'Because Tony was picky.'

"So why were you so willing to trust Loki?" She asked through the stall. I jumped a little when she suddenly spoke. I paused on the zipper behind me at her words.

"I guess because I understand him, sort of." I responded, unzipping the dress I was currently trying on and wriggling out of it.

"Understand him?" She asked me. I probably imagined the understanding tone in her voice.

So I explained it to her. I'd already explained it to a few people before. So it wasn't hard. The whole black sheep idea was something I knew too well anyways. I'd dealt with it in my own family. So I really did feel for him. I paused and for a moment, we lapsed into silence. Then she spoke again, asking me something that I didn't expect as I tried on the second dress she had given me.

"Do you think he can change, become good?" She asked. It was an interesting question considering who she was. I paused for only a moment to consider how to answer.

"People are... Well. People can change at any time, but they need a reason." I answered with a small pause, "I don't know. It's all about giving the right push. Hey, give me your opinion on this dress."

I actually liked this dress better than the one I had already gotten. It was actually much more flattering. I opened the door and stepped out, waiting for the other woman to step out and tell me how my dress looked. After a moment, she did, wearing a black dress of her own, with a red line down the front. I responded to her dress while she was still evaluating mine.

"Very 'Black Widow' of you." I told her with a smirk. She sent me a very small one of her own back.

"You are going to wear that dress." She told me. I smiled, it did look good, I had to admit. I nodded in agreement.

o0o

Since the next day everyone was required to be there for the party on Saturday, Tony had insisted that everyone come over to the Avengers Tower the night before. For drinks. Of course. I had to admit that I was not surprised by the fact that Tony had insisted on drinking. Only a little surprised when he practically dragged me into joining them. Which meant that I was currently sitting on the floor in the common area, placed neatly beside the armchair Steve was seated in. Tony and Pepper were taking up one of the couches, with Clint and Natasha taking up another, and Bruce sitting in the other armchair. I could have taken a seat on either of the couches, there was room, but I had chosen the floor. That way if I got so drunk I fell over, I would already be on the floor.

I realized as well that drinking with these guys was actually not the most fun. The first ten minutes consisted of sitting there mostly silent and sipping liquor. (Tony had proposed a toast and was doing most of the talking currently.) So I was glad when Tony spoke up to the group.

"Okay, you guys are a little boring." He said with a frown of his own. I sipped my rum quietly, watching him, "How about we play a drinking game?"

"Ooooh. We could play drunken truth or dare." I suggested with a grin, leaning forward to grab 'my' bottle of rum. "Or 'I never..."

"Truth or dare would be too easy for them to get away with not drinking." Tony said with a laugh, "Let's do 'I Never'. Explain it to them in case they don't know while I get more."

I nodded at him before turning my attention to the Avengers. "Alright, here's the deal. We take turns going around the circle saying a true statement such that starts with 'I never', such as 'I've never been to Paris.' Anyone who has, drinks."

They nodded, all following. Steve was the only one who seemed a little lost. He may not have played it before. How old was this game, anyways?

"No explanations for it. Like an airport would count, no saying why you were there. Just drink if you have, don't drink if you haven't." I explained. It was one of my favorite games, really. Then again, I was almost as bad as Tony and would take any excuse to drink given to me. "Sound like a plan?"

Before any of them had time to answer, of course, Tony came in with a few more bottles of liquor. "Good, cause we're playing." He set the bottles down on the table, along with a few shot glasses. "Everyone take a shot glass and get ready."

Two people in particular, however, were looking somewhat skeptical, I noticed. So I wasn't surprised when they spoke up.

"I'm not really sure I should be drinking too much." Bruce commented with a frown. Steve chose then to add into the conversation as well.

"And I can't really get drunk... My metabolism..." He started, and I cut in, frowning at him.

"Is four times higher than the average person." I paused, then turned to Bruce, "Well then, how about this, Bruce, think you can do a sip of beer or wine or something less alcoholic instead of shots?"

The doctor nodded. "Yea, that should be fine."

"And the Cap can use the big shot glass." Tony cut in, walking over and giving him a taller shot glass, taking the one that he had in his hand. "Four times higher metabolism means four times the shot." He paused and turned towards me with a grin, "Should I get you the small one, rummy? Don't want you to get smashed too early on."

I stuck my tongue out at him at his teasing comment. "Oh, just you wait. This little girl can hold her liquor well enough. Besides," I broke into a wide grin, "You guys have done far more things than I have, I imagine, so it might be harder finding things I've done that you haven't."

Tony paused, staring at my assumingly smug face for a moment before he smirked on his own. This made me nervous. "Fine, I'll start. I've never smacked Steve's ass."

Damn. Without saying anything, I fill up my shot glass with some rum and drink. I can feel my cheeks heat up, and wonder how the hell he knew I had done that. So far, I hadn't done it with anyone else around and- JARVIS. Should have known. I send a sneaky glance over at Steve and notice a pink tint on his cheeks. Good. I'm the only one who drank in this case. Damn.

"Well, looks like we're playing dirty then." Pepper commented as it came to her turn. She shook her head at Tony slightly before coming with a small smirk of her own. "Alright. I've never slept with someone whose name I didn't know."

Damn it again. This time it was Clint, Natasha, Tony and I who took a drink. Fake names didn't count as knowing someone's name, after all. I could feel Steve's gaze on me as I poured my second shot and downed it, but I stared forward, intent to ignore it. I wasn't about to be embarrassed because mister virgin boy hadn't. Next was Bruce.

"I've never slept with anyone in the room." Bruce, Steve and I held our drinks. Clint, Natasha, Pepper and Tony downed theirs. I raised a brow in question towards the spy and the assassin, but neither of them said anything, of course.

"I never woke up naked not knowing where I was." Steve said. Damn again. This time, everyone drank except for him. He had yet to drink, and I was beginning to think that it was his turn to drink. I grinned widely, knowing what I could say that would be embarrassing for him.

"I've never mistaken 'fondue' for any sort of sexual relations." I said merrily, grinning at the Captain. He frowned at me, but took his shot. Tony, amusingly, also took a shot at that one.

"Never have I ever peed my suit." Natasha's jab was. Tony was the only one to drink on that with a slight scowl at the memory.

"I've never worn a dress." Clint cut in. A little pathetic, but amusingly, everyone but him and Steve drank.

The questions continued, Tony targeting Steve and I the most, Pepper targeting Tony mostly (which got a fair amount of shots from me, actually), Bruce, Clint, Natasha and Steve going free for all on everyone. And me trying to get Steve and Tony to drink the most. In the end, Tony and I had taken the most shots. Followed by, in order, Natasha, Clint, Steve, Pepper and Bruce. We went easy on Bruce, I suspect, because of worrying about the Hulk. We did find out quite a few things about each other. They ended up finding out a good deal about my sex life (usually when they were trying to get Tony to drink), and a fair deal about Natasha'a in that regard (some about Clint's that were surprising, and of course, snippits of Bruce's and Pepper's). When Steve's lack of a sex life was apparent, we all sort of teamed up on the virgin boy for a bit to get him drunk.

Bruce ducked out first, finishing his bottle of beer and leaving the group to go to sleep in 'his' room in the tower. Clint, Natasha and Pepper were next in line to leave. Leaving me with Steve and Tony. Tony was, by far, the most drunken of us. Followed by me, and lastly Steve.

"Everyone's gone but us! We can't play 'I never' with three people!" I slurred, still on my seat on the floor. Only by now I'd managed to sneak my way against Steve's armchair, sitting happily between Steve's legs with my head practically on his knee. It was a happy position for me.

"Oh, well then, we'll play truth, or dare!" Tony cut in, giving me a grin. "I'll go, Rummy. Truth or dare?"

He was referring to me, of course. I grinned and I suspected that he already knew my answer. "Dare."

"Kiss the Cap." He said simply.

I grinned over at him before looking up at Steve. He was looking down at me as if expecting me to take a shot, choose truth. Fat chance. I get the perfect excuse to kiss Captain America? Psh. I'm taking it. Turning myself towards him, I settled my hands on his knees and practically dragged myself up unto his lap, enjoying watching his face get more and more surprised by my actions. Finally I pulled myself up into the armchair and unto his lap. He was sitting there still slightly in shock and surprise when Tony spoke again. "'M Going t' bed. Don't be too loud."

I gave him a glance before he stumbled off and disappeared, leaving me having not kissed Steve yet, perched on his lap. He looked a little nervous at me sitting there. I smiled down at him as Tony disappeared. Yup. He had definitely gotten at least a little bit drunk, if his glazed over eyes were any indication. Four ounce 'shots' were a good solution to that little issue, it seemed. Of course, it hadn't helped that we (largely Tony and I) had been determined to make him drunk. How drunk, though, I didn't know. But I didn't really care. He was watching me, and I leaned down, closing my eyes, and gave him a small, gentle kiss on the lips. He'd been drinking whiskey, I could taste it on his lips. I pulled back before he had much chance to react and gave him a playful grin.

"Silly Cap, you're cute." I told him before climbing off of his lap and standing, wobbling slightly. I started to walk with a slight stumble when I felt a hand catch me around my waist. I grinned at the blonde haired man beside me. He was quick, it seemed. And I kept smiling at him as he helped me to my room and laid me down on my bed. I shooed him away before he could do anything like tuck me in or something silly like that and found myself drifting off fairly quickly.

* * *

******AN: Sorry about how long this took, lovelies! I ended up having to get a root canal monday morning. Not a fun weekend. lol. Since I feel bad, though, here is a short preview of the next chapter. (Note, this snippit is not actually going to be in the next chapter, since it's third person, but I wanted to write it anyways.)  
**

* * *

******Preview for Chapter Five:  
**

_"Hey Tony, have you seen Amelia?" Steve asked the other man. He had finally gotten a break from all of the fans and politicians that had attended the fundraiser and he had wanted to spend some time with the shorter woman and her friendly face. Tony shrugged at him, their group circled together for the moment, left to their own devices while the Major made a speech for them. _

_"Not since I sent her to get Thor." He answered, taking a sip of his scotch, before he turned to the man in question. "Thor, do you have any idea where Amelia might be?"  
_

_The blonde warrior smiled warmly before answering, and shocking the rest of the group.  
_

_"She is upstairs, with Loki." He said cheerfully. They stared at him dumbfounded for a moment as he continued, "She said that it would be best for him not to come down and she offered to stay with him during the party."  
_

_"What?" Natasha hissed, staring at the Asgardian in disbelief. "Why didn't you tell us Loki was here?"  
_

_By now the group was already moving towards the Elevator, however. Pepper staying behind to take care of the fundraiser while they dealt with the villain. The group was a buzz of angry and disbelieving murmurs towards the Asgardian prince at his actions. As they all stepped in and the elevator began to climb towards the top of the Tower, he finally got the chance to explain himself.  
_

_"He will not harm her. Heimdall is watching him and-" Thor was stopped mid-sentence when the elevator door opened and they heard a shriek.  
_


	6. Chapter 5

**Ichigo55: Drinking games are always fun. Tony catches a lot of embarrassing scenes in this story. Not just from Amy, either.**

**Vex Matthewson: I imagine Tony would find Steve amusing and easy to tease. Of course, he seems to like to tease everybody. And never fear! This story is mostly humor, after all. :p**

**SceneNeko: Yes! Loki returns! And he shall play a bigger role from now on.**

**Marskatr: I'm so glad that you're shipping them! They'll need a shipping name, though... Hm... But... excitement! haha.**

**Tribute14: Here is the chapter, read on!**

**Smartkitty314: When I read your review, I starting singing 'I'm bringing Loki back' to the tune of Justin Timberlake's 'Sexy Back' song. Which is fitting, though. Hah.**

**HannajimaShields: I'm so glad you like it! I don't do sucked into world fics very often. And she may soon die of fangirl swooning between Steve, Tony and Loki. Oh my. ;)**

**Bandnerd2669: I love that you love my writing style! I was actually worried because I don't use this style very often and I kind of consider it one of my worst styles. And Steve is always the gentleman. I suppose it comes from being raised in the forties...**

* * *

**The Wish Assistant**

By Adrienne Valentine

**Chapter Five**

* * *

Day six.

The day came for the fundraiser party. I have to admit that I was not the most excited person for this event. I did not know why I was going. Well, besides that Tony said it was required.

I did not like these sorts of things. I didn't like crowds. Comic-Con and other nerd fests were easy. I dress up in costume and go with Sarah and I don't worry about anything much. I can steal the character's confidence to a degree, and if not, Sarah is there. My invincible, outgoing friend. But for this, she can't be there and the few people I do know... The Avengers, are going to be too busy being the 'Special Guests' to deal with my stupid anxieties. I'd feel bad even asking. Or assuming. The whole thing made me anxious.

And it didn't help that I couldn't even find anyone. Despite that everyone had spent the night, it seemed difficult to find anyone in the morning. I suppose they were all off somewhere doing something. I hadn't woken up until noon, after all. They were probably preparing things. So I found myself wandering through the living quarters levels of the Avengers Tower, still in my pajamas. Which really, was Steve's shirt I'd gotten on the first day and another pair of yoga pants that I'd acquired while working for SHIELD.

While wandering I ended up finding the Gym. I was slightly surprised that Steve wasn't there, but, as I stepped into the room, it certainly did remind me. There was supposed to be dancing at this event. The thought made me frown a little. I didn't dance very often. Certainly not with other people around. I should... Probably practice. Glancing down the halls both ways, I made sure that no one else was nearby and shut the door behind me. I walked around the gym, and sadly found no sort of music player. I frowned at no one in particular. "JARVIS, can you play some music while I practice dancing?"

"Of course Miss Samuels. What kind of music would you like?" He asked me. I paused for a moment.

"Classical?" I suggested, "I need to practice the classics, I suppose. Um. Let's start with the Waltz, I guess."

"Very well, Miss Samuels." The AI said and I smiled.

"Thank you, JARVIS." I told the system, and it was started to no longer feel odd talking to the house as the music started. I planted myself near the center of the room, where I had plenty of room as I started.

It was also odd to practice dancing by myself, but it wasn't a big surprise for me. I did this mostly by myself anyways. So. One, step. Two, step. Three, step. Again. One two three, one two three, one two three. I kept going like this for as long as I could, spinning myself in place for a few moments. As the music ended, I heard something. Frowning, I turned towards the door, but there was no one there. The door was closed. It must have been my imagination, to be honest. My mind did that quite a bit, especially when I was nervous. I frowned. The waltz was really the only dance that I could practice by myself. And probably the only one that I would need to remember. The rest of the ballroom dances I only had a basic grasp of if I was led. And at this point I doubted that I was going to have to worry about it any time soon.

"JARVIS, can you play me Beats Antique?" I asked. The AI didn't respond before putting the music on.

I smiled as I began dancing again. I took a moment as the music started to get into posture. While I had some idea of how to waltz (it wasn't hard), what I really liked to do was belly dancing. Not that I ever performed it for anyone. I paused before starting my shimmy, bending my knees in time with the beat, the motion causing my hips to shift up in down as I wove my arms through the air. Stepping to one side, I slid my body and quickly fell into the steps, focusing on getting them right. Now I was simply dancing to get rid of my nerves for the day. I could just avoid having to waltz or anything at the fundraiser. It wouldn't be hard.

But right now. Shimmy, hip drop, step out, extend arm, step back with an Egyptian traveling step. I kept having to remind myself to fix my hands, pausing at times during the music to make sure I was still in posture. It had been awhile since I'd done this, and I felt like I was doing terribly. But I kept going, eyes closed to help me remember the lessons I'd gotten. The only gym class I'd really taken in college. Bah. I probably should have taken more gym classes. Or more of this class.

I didn't stop until I was tired. Smiling to myself, I opened my eyes to finish off with a Egyptian step, turning around and spotting Steve sitting off on the side of the gym with something in his lap and tripping right over my feet and falling on my face with a groan.

He'd seen me dancing. He'd seen me doing my silly, not very good, dancing. I felt embarrassed. My face was burning up. I was too embarrassed to even stand up from where I was positioned on the floor, hiding my face. Until I felt a hand on my arm. Looking up, I saw that Steve was there, looking concerned down at me. He extended his hand towards me and I could still feel the burning in my cheeks. I paused, watching him for a moment before taking his hand and letting him help me up.

"Are you alright, did you get hurt?" He asked me. Likely thinking that my falling on my face was due to some sort of injury. Nope. The problem with me dancing in front of people, really, was that I did tend to do terribly at dancing whenever someone was watching. I got so embarrassed by having someone there that it wouldn't matter if I'd practice it a million times. I frowned a little embarrassed, but sent him a small smile.

"No, I'm- I'm fine." I paused, muttering quietly as he pulled me up. I blushed as I stumbled forward, practically falling into the taller man. And blushing terribly the whole time. I suspected that my face was very red because I was feeling suddenly very warm.

"Oh, well, I'm sorry for interrupting you. I came to use the gym and-" He started, then paused when I leaned into him, burying my face in his chest, feeling even more embarrassed, but not minding where I was in the least.

"Found me looking like an idiot." I mumbled before pulling away. I gave him a weak smile before starting my mad dash to the door.

And stopping when I noticed something where Steve had been sitting. A sketchpad. Opened to a drawing. I stopped, frowning as I studied it for a moment. I realized what it was as he approached. This time he had a pink tint to his cheeks again as I picked up the sketchpad. It was... It was really good. I guess I forgot that part of the Captain. He was an artist before he was a superhero. Art Student according to the comics. They never said in the movie, despite that they had a short scene of him drawing. And this was... I looked up at him, my eyes wide as I asked him. "Is... Is this me?"

"Yea. I-uh-I saw you dancing and-" He started, his blush darkening as my eyes went between him and the sketch. "I hope you don't mind. I should have asked you first, I just-"

I interrupted him by throwing my arms around his waist, his sketchpad still in one hand. I couldn't help myself, and I explained to him why as soon as I pulled back.

"No one's ever drawn me before!" I smiled up at him with a large grin. I paused, stepping back and holding the sketchpad in front of me again, studying it for another moment. I could barely recognize me. He didn't hide my layers of extra fat that covered my body, my curves on my hips, bust, thighs, chest, anywhere. But he had also somehow made it... Not look bad. Actually with how he was drew me, I actually looked good. I couldn't immediately recognize the move I had been doing, but it looked wonderful never the less. I shifted from one foot to the other, looking at him and not quite wanting to ask him, but it was the first time anyone had ever drawn me and... "Can I... Can I keep this?"

He looked down at me for a moment, as if considering my question before he smiled at me.

"Of course." He paused, and took the sketchpad from me for a moment, carefully tearing out the piece of paper with the sketch before handing it to me. With a wide smile and warm cheeks I reached forward, pulling him down towards me and giving him a kiss on the cheek before finally dashing a quick escape out of the gym, careful not to ruin the sketch. I paused at the door, however, turning back to him.

"Hey, save me a dance tonight?" I asked.

"I will." He smiled back and I made my escape complete, rushing past a puzzled Pepper on the way.

o0o

With the sketch of me drawn by Steve and a promise from the man for a dance at the fundraiser, I was beginning to think that I was prepared for the this crazy thing now. Well. Almost. I had been standing in front of the mirror for at least half an hour right now, twisting and turning to inspect myself in the dress. The dress looked great on me. The style was very flattering. Instead of the style that most of the other women at the party would likely be wearing, my dress kind was more retro pin-up style. It was a dark blue halter dress with a built-in corset and a wide, flowy skirt that hit me just below the knees. The satin swing dress was very flattering, it held up my chest, held in my stomach and hid my thighs.

The black heels that Natasha had made me buy were very nice (with Tony's money, mind you, or SHIELD's money, I wasn't quite sure, really.) I felt like I'd walked out of an old movie. I let my hair hang down, the dark brown of my hair actually looking decent against the dress. Under most circumstances, I would say that I looked marvelous. Instead, I was still very self-conscious about my outfit. While I thought I looked good, for once, I knew that many of the other women who would be attending would look far more amazing...

Nope, now I was feeling anxious about the whole thing again. With a deep breath, I closed my eyes and stepped away from the mirror. I was going to be late if I stood there any longer. I stopped on my way to my bedroom door, pausing and grabbing my Captain America plushie off of my bed, giving it a quick hug before setting it back down. Opening my door, I prepared to make my way to the party on the bottom floors and stopped in my tracks when I noticed the door across from mine closing, with Steve standing right there, well, closing his door. I wanted to bolt, run back to my room and hide so he wouldn't see me, but my feet wouldn't let me. So instead I fixed on my best 'I'm not nervous as hell' smile as he turned to face me. Probably unaware that I was even there.

And then he was facing me and I could not stop myself from watching his expressions carefully as they passed his face. Not that I could read them as fast as they went by, but I did recognize what it landed on. Or I thought I did. I did not want to assume, however. I'd seen that look on people before. Some men, some women. But it couldn't be on his face. He wouldn't be... He wasn't... I frowned a little bit, the smiling fading slightly as my cheeks heated a bit.

"Amelia..." He started and I smiled nervously at him. "You look... Nice. I mean, you look more than nice, that dress makes you look like a right beautiful dame. I mean woman. I mean.. You always look nice, but..."

My cheeks burned at his comment and my smile turned genuine and I couldn't help but chuckle at him as he started to blush at his own stumbling. I stepped closer to him with a wide smile.

"Thank you, Steve. You look very handsome yourself." I paused, feeling silly almost for a moment once again before I suggested my idea. "Care to walk me to the party?"

"Sure. I mean, yes." He said with a smile, extending his arm towards me, which I took carefully. I felt very silly, but there was a smiled across my face as he led me to the elevator. This was looking to be a good night.

o0o

Did I mention how I hate parties? Crowds, parties, and these... People who I didn't know made me anxious. Shortly after arriving Steve had been whisked away to talk to some people who had donated a lot of money to the fundraiser. And I hadn't seen him since. Every one else I knew from the Avengers had similar situations. While Natasha and Clint's faces had not been publicly plastered across the world, they stayed and chatted with people as if they merely knew the Avengers. They were there to keep an eye on things. Bruce was not easily recognized by everyone in his non-Hulked out form, but even those who didn't realize he was the Hulk quickly found out that he was a scientist, and a famous one at that. Tony was, of course, drinking and socializing as if it were the most common thing in the world. Which for him, it probably was. Pepper was, of course, with him, making sure he didn't do anything stupid.

Phil had made a brief appearance to check in on the situation and stood with me off to the sidelines for a bit, before he too was called away.

This went on for over three hours and I was about ready to tear my hair out. I hated the feeling I got at these sorts of things. I was either feeling judged, ignored, or otherwise unimportant. Whether anyone was actually judging me was beside the point. How would I know anyways? My stomach would not settle and I couldn't drink anything from nerves. The few people who talked to me seemed to want to know who I was, but my answers didn't satisfy them and soon they too left. I wanted to leave, and as the time ticked by, I was waiting for an excuse.

I got my wish when Pepper approached me with a small, worried smile. I was hoping that she was coming over to see how I was doing, despite my plastered smile, but those hopes were dashed as soon as she spoke.

"JARVIS just told Tony that Thor has apparently arrived, he's upstairs in the suite's bar." Pepper explained, and I knew where this was going before she finished, "Would you mind running up and getting him?"

I nodded and without comment, headed towards the hidden elevator, stepping inside and letting the AI guide me to the top of the Avengers' levels. Then to the elevator that led to Tony's 'Private' suite. I was sent, I knew, because I was allowed to that level and that I could go there without the crowd noticing that I'd left. As the elevator's door pinged open, I remembered that this was the room where a fair deal of the fighting had occurred, glancing around, I had not been in here since then. The excessive damage was repaired completely and the room looked amazing. I looked around for Thor and he certainly was not obviously up here. But that question was answered shortly.

He entered through the doors coming from the balcony with a large grin on his face. I smiled back and stepped forward when I noticed he had another person with him. Behind the large blonde Asgardian was another tall Asgardian. This time dark haired, pale, and scowling as he entered. Thor had brought Loki to the tower. I suppose that I could understand why JARVIS hadn't mentioned this part to Tony, and this wasn't a big surprise. Well, to me at least.

"Hello Thor." I said kindly to the large warrior before turning to the other with a small smile towards him. "And Loki! No one told me you'd be here!"

"Greetings Amelia Samuels!" The Asgardian prince called out to me, stepping up to me and wrapping me in a hug, lifting me off of the ground to do so. I pushed out of his grip as he set me down, tired. Thor was nice and all, but he was not my favorite of the Avengers. I did not like people randomly hugging me. Steve got away with the random touching, and so did Tony, but Thor didn't yet. I'd only really met him when we had gone and gotten shawarma.

"Again. Hello Thor." I nodded, but paused when I took another look at Loki. His hands were cuffed and his mouth was covered just like when he left. I frowned, that did not seem right. "What is Loki doing back on Midgard?"

The two seemed to take note of my use of the word 'Midgard' instead of Earth. Though that may have been my imagination and pride at using the 'proper' term. Thor proceeded to explain. In far too much detail. As punishment for his deeds, Loki was banished to Midgard like Thor had been. Stripped of his powers, both Asgardian and Jotun (the God of Mischief had cringed when his brother had mentioned that little bit), he was to stay on Midgard until Odin felt that he had repented his sins. Heimdall, of course, was to be watching everything that was going on, and Thor had thought that the best place to keep an eye on him would be with the Avengers. The idea wasn't bad, since they had been the ones to defeat him before, but... One thing still bothered me.

"Alright, I get that. But why does he still have the gag and chains?" I asked and I chose to read Loki's expression as surprise. Thor seemed to realize that the items were still on his brother and reached over and took them off of the other man quickly.

"I suppose I should thank you, mortal." Loki said and I couldn't help but crack a smile at him and his condescending tone. And the way that Thor sent him a slight glare that I could only read as 'be polite, brother'.

But instead of saying it aloud as Loki rolled his eyes, Thor turned towards me with a different question. "But why are you up here, Daughter of Samuel? I would have expected Tony, the Son of Stark."

"My name's Amelia." I cut in, slightly annoyed at the way he was being so formal and making my last name sound so... Paternal. But then, taking in the question, I answered, "Tony sent me up to get you. There is a party downstairs and they want you attending."

"Very well. Come Loki!" The warrior cut in, starting towards the elevator. I frowned.

"Um. Thor." The man stopped and looked at me. "The party is a fundraiser for rebuilding New York. I'm sorry, but I don't think it would be a good idea for Loki to go with you."

"But my brother cannot be left unattended!" He argued with me. I sighed. Well, I was hoping for a chance to get out of the party.

"I'll stay up here with him. You go on down." I said. He gave me a dubious look before I shooed him into the elevator, not giving him much chance to argue. As soon as the doors closed, I sighed in relief, reaching down and pulling off the heels that had begun to hurt my feet.

"Do you not fear that I will strike you?" Loki asked with a sneer, as I tossed my heels to one side. I frowned a little bit at him, but shrugged, cracking a slight smirk.

"I've never been a very God-fearing woman." I told him, walking past the much taller man towards the bar. Amusingly, I had been left alone with this man before. In this same room. Odd, the change of circumstances. I could feel him watch me as I grabbed a bottle of alcohol.

"Foolish of you." He snapped. I shrugged at him again. That may well be, but I was glad to be away from the party. And the crowd, and the disappointment. "However, if I do recall, you are mine."

I paused at this comment, my hand latched around a bottle of rum. I turned towards him and raised an eyebrow, waiting for an explination.

"You shall be my servant, mortal, while I am here." He said and I shook my head, amused by his display of arrogance.

"Oh, of course my Lord." I answered with a playful smile. "Now, I suspect that drinking copious amounts of liquor is a wonderful idea and I humbly suggest that this is where we start while we wait for the horrid party to end."

"Horrid?" He asked me with a raised eyebrow. I nodded, "Is this not Stark's party? I thought you mortals were required to enjoy his things."

I chuckled at his comment as I walked over with my bottle of rum and two tumblers. "I'm not one for parties, Tony's or not. I end up standing to the side by myself. In the end, I think it sounds more interesting to sit with the God of Mischief and have a drink."

He was watching me as I poured both of us a drink in the glasses. In my opinion, the man seemed as if he were pouting like a teenager who had not gotten his way. Which, in many respects, was likely the case.

"And why should I be interested in drinking with a mortal?" He asked, furthering my thought that the prince was pouting. I chuckled and motioned towards Tony's bar.

"What? You don't want to drink all of Tony's good liquor?" I teased him, and this seemed to get him to think for a moment, so I continued, "The stuff he doesn't like to share?"

A grin crossed against his face at my comment and he seemed to think about it for a moment. "You make a good point, wench. Fetch me whatever is the most expensive."

I walked back over towards the bar, looking at the unlabeled bottles for a few seconds. I had no idea which one was his most expensive liquor. I took off the top of one the bottles and took a sniff. Whiskey, maybe? Without tasting it, I couldn't be sure. I must have been standing there for too long because soon there was a presence behind me and a glance told me that it was Loki. Unlike myself, it took him only a moment to select a bottle, taking the glass cork out and taking a long draw of the gold liquor. I couldn't help but watch him as he did so.

Yes, I had always had a thing for the handsome God of Mischief, and his presence was powerful. But I realized how silly he was being at the moment as he finished the entire bottle of liquor while standing there. Asgardians. I suppose they were used to stronger stuff. He said nothing before grabbing two more bottles of liquor (after carefully smelling and tasting them) and walked over to the couch that I had gotten drunk on last time we were here. I smirked a little bit at his actions, but said nothing, grabbing another bottle of green liquid that smelt like anise. Of course Tony would have Absinthe. I chuckled at this, one of my other favorite drinks. Though this one had a bit more... Ritual involved. I paused and ducked into the cupboard below the bar, grinning. Sugar cubes, absinthe spoons and a pitcher for water.

I balanced the ingredients, filling the pitcher with water and walking over to the table. I must say that I did have some odd tastes in the end, but oh well. Loki was working on the second bottle and so far he didn't look like it was affecting him yet. I set down the ingredients for the absinthe for the moment, reaching instead for my glass of rum.

"You are actually dressed presentably this time, human." He said. I paused at his comment mid-sip. It was almost a compliment. For him at least. I sent him a smile as best as I could through his short tone.

"Yes, Natasha helped me pick out the dress. I'm surprised I look halfway decent." I frowned and took a long sip of the rum, "Not that it makes one damn bit of difference, in the end."

He made a curious 'hm' sort of noise as he took a drink of his own, as if waiting for me to continue. I didn't say anything for a few moments before he motioned towards me. Yes, he wanted me to continue. Oh dear.

"It's stupid." I muttered into my rum, "But I kind of wanted to dance with Steve."

He said nothing in response, and I was glad for it. I didn't want to explain more than that. This whole night was not going as planned, and I got the feeling that he felt the same way about all of it. We sat in silence for another few moments before I decided to tell the pouting prince some things that I hadn't really discussed with others yet. While I'd discussed the Loki in the comics, I hadn't explained some things about my like of the God of Legend.

"You know, I used to study the Norse myths." I told him through some rum, "Went through a pagan phase when I was younger and uh... To be honest, you were my 'patron God'."

I laughed at my own comment. It was a little silly of me to admit that to the fact that the man sitting beside me was someone that I actually worshiped in a sense. It was a really odd thought. He was watching me when I said this. I suppose in the height of the Norse times, it was not a common thing. In fact, I knew in the mythology the trickster was often scorned and blamed for any misfortunes. If anything, he was asked not to cause any trouble for them.

"I did not know that mortals still paid attention to Asgard." He said, his voice bored, but he was still watching me with interest. I paused, looking at him for a moment myself.

"Well, religion is complicated, and I don't care for it too much, but..." I paused, shrugging, "I liked your portfolio. Mischief, lies, chaos. Sounded like fun, so why not follow the lead of the Trickster?"

A smirk spread across the Trickster's face at my comment as I smiled at him. I certainly did feel silly for the comment, but I was hoping to cheer up the Asgardian with the truth. He was an interesting character in mythology, as well as in the comics; so it did not surprise me. He was stuck here on Midgard with a mortal and no powers, but perhaps he would feel better with a mortal there that didn't think he was a monster.

o0o

We'd drunk three... no, four bottles of Tony's liquor. Well. Loki had drunken three bottles to himself, and half of my bottle of rum, which was now finished. He was actually somewhat drunk now. Needless to say, I was as well. Half a bottle of rum and some sips of the other liquors that the God of Mischief had let me snag from him. Our conversation had been shallow, almost non-existent, and, really, somewhat light hearted. We'd mostly made jokes about Thor, mostly how he wasn't very smart and thought with his muscles instead of his brain. It wasn't entirely true and I think we both knew it, but it was true enough that we enjoyed ourselves with making fun of him. He'd also begun to tell me embarrassing stories.

"There was this one time when we were younger, a jotun stole Thor's hammer. We weren't sure how he managed it, but he wanted to marry Freyja. Only then would he return Mjolnir." The God of Mischief told me, the slight slurring of his voice telling me that he was certainly drunk at this point. "Thor tried to make Freyja marry him, but she refused, so adamantly in fact that Thor became frightened of her."

I burst out laughing at this. From what he had described earlier of Freyja, she had a stature and appearance more similar to my own than that of any warrior. Plump, soft and feminine (she was the Goddess of Fertility and love, after all). The mighty Thor afraid of the soft and 'demure' Freyja sounded simply hilarious. Especially as I pictured it from Loki's descriptions.

"So I convinced him that if he dressed as Freyja, that we could trick the frost giant into returning his hammer. So Thor and I dressed for the 'wedding', and the giant was so entranced with his 'beautiful bride' that he had to have 'her', handing Thor the hammer to impress his new bride as he went in for a kiss." He explained through laughter. He didn't seem embarrassed at all that he had been wearing a dress for this, but he did seem rather amused at his brother. "Thor got so angry that he could not contain himself any longer and he proceeds to attack the party guests. We end up returning home and he arrives, still in the tattered wedding dress, not having bothered to change out of it."

Oh dear, yup, Thor would be thoroughly teased for this one. Definitely. I could not stop myself from laughing at the Asgardian for a good few minutes. He too was laughing, and had seemed to loosen up considerably. He had taken off his long leather coat and his excess armor and was sitting there in his black leather trousers and what I could only describe as a green silk(?) tunic. He certainly had a lot of layers. He had taken off his long coat and a vest and seemed far more relaxed then when he had arrived. The idea made me smile. It was a little odd to see the god like this.

Now for the absinthe. We hadn't drunken it yet, and I was looking forward to it. I hadn't had any absinthe in a long time, and I suspected that Tony had the good stuff. At some point he had gotten between me and the ingredients. I had the bottle of absinthe, but the sugar cubes, spoons and water were on the other side of him. I frowned, leaning over the Asgardian to grab the spoons first.

"What are you up to now, wench?" He asks me with a chuckle. I smirked, I didn't mind the new 'nickname' I'd received. Since I was doing the serving of the liquor, he had deigned to call me a wench. However long he chose to call me by the term. I found it preferable to 'human' or 'mortal'.

"Absinthe is marvelous, my lord." I said, putting on my best 'regal' tone while addressing him. "You must try it. It does requires these ingredients, however. It's an experience."

He nodded at me and reached forward towards the sugar cubes, leaning over me and we probably looked a bit silly, slightly entangled and both reaching over each other in an amusing manner. And then. I stiffened, feeling something tickle across my exposed back and I could not stop myself from giggling. He pulled back as I fell forward, watching me.

"Why are you giggling so?" He asked me, almost sounding offended by my actions.

"That tickled! What did you do?" I said between chuckles. He paused, reaching down with one finger and lightly tickling me again. I started giggling again at the touch. I was far too ticklish for this, and the Asgardian seemed to find it amusing. Well, really, most people did because I was extremely ticklish.

"Weak mortal." He commented and I pouted at him for a moment before getting an idea. Reaching towards him, I wriggled my fingers against him. For a moment, he did nothing, but I moved to his side and he bit his lip, before the drunken god started laughing as well. A deep, masculine chuckle, but a chuckle nonetheless.

"Ha! You're ticklish too!" He frowned at me before reaching down and tickling me in return. A tickle fight started then. Which was the most ridiculous thing in the world, if I stopped to think about it. Having a tickle fight with a fictional villain while both of us were thoroughly smashed.

The built-in corset protected my stomach, but he was quickly finding other spots to tickle me. I shrieked in laughter, twisting away from the Asgardian and falling off the couch and unto the floor, still laughing. he smirked down at me from where I was when we both suddenly heard a group of footsteps run over. I looked up from where I was, pulling myself up to find the Avengers standing above us, looking ready for a fight. I grinned widely at them, and they suddenly looked confused.

"Hello Avengers! The God of Mischief and I have been drinking and I have just discovered that he is ticklish!" Yes, I was still talking more similar to how Loki did than how I did most of the time. Or at any time, really.

"I have always known that my brother is ticklish!" Thor cut in with a large grin.

"Oh, do shut up Thor." Loki cut in, a annoyed tone to his voice, but there was also a teasing tone to it as well. "I told her the story of when Mjolnir was stolen by that frost giant. Perhaps you would like to share that tale with your friends?"

"No!" Thor shouted, looking embarrassed and frantic. Loki and I started laughing hysterically at his reaction. The group was still standing there as if they didn't know what to do. I suppose it must look a little ridiculous, Loki and I drunk and laughing together. I reached up and tried to pull myself up onto the couch next to Loki. I was having a little bit of trouble with it, however.

"Are you... Alright, Amelia?" Steve asked me and I blushed a little bit as he helped me back unto the couch.

"I'm wonderful. And drunk..." I paused, laughing, "Again. I seem to do that a lot. And Loki is a wonderful drinking companion. He is a happy drunk, like myself."

Steve looked past me to the God of Mischief as he sat down next to me, looking somewhat concerned. I laughed at the idea. Behind Steve, the Avengers looked annoyed. Bruce, Clint and Natasha said something amongst themselves before they started walking off, shaking their heads. I didn't hear whatever it was that they said. Tony was looking almost horrified at the empty bottles of liquor, and Thor was looking amused. Happy that his brother was no longer acting like a pouting teenager. Which he had been. It was interesting, though I wondered when he would level out. I didn't know what the God of Mischief acted like when he wasn't angry or pouting or trying to conquer the world or anything of the sort.

"Why do you keep drinking my liquor?" Tony asked, annoyed and tired sounding. I grinned up at him.

"It was not I!" I cried out, pointing towards the God of Mischief with a chuckle, "It was the God of Mischief!"

"Traitorous wench!" Loki cried as Stark glared at him, before he chuckled and poked me in the side. I gasped before giggling loudly. "I know your weakness, you will fall before me!"

He continued to tickle me and I could not stop laughing. I pulled away from the Asgardian as he 'attacked' me, practically crawling into Steve's lap in the process. I was giggling loudly the whole while.

"Save me, Captain, the villain is attacking me!" I cried, wrapping my arms around him before burying my head in his chest with a large grin. Loki let up, leaning back and reaching for the absinthe. Tony grabbed it from him with a glare.

"I think it's time for you two to go to bed." The genius-billionare-playboy-philanthropist scolded, sounding amusingly like a fatherly figure. I pouted up at him from my spot on Steve's lap.

"But DAAAAAAAAD." I cried, teasing him for his tone and noticing how much Steve was blushing at this point. I grinned at him when I noticed. "Only if Steve can join me."

"Fine. Steve, take Amelia to bed." He said, this time with a small grin at Steve's embarrassment and my own playful tone. He then turned towards the God of Thunder. "Thor, grab your brother, I'll show you your rooms for now."

Thor nodded and walked past us, grabbing his brother by the arm and pulling him up. "Come now, brother. Time for fun is over."

"Oh, stop calling me that." Loki sneered back, but he didn't sound like his heart was entirely into the protest. I had to smile at this, and I did not take too much time to watch them go past before I turned my attention back to the man whose lap I was sitting on.

"Take me to bed?" I asked him as his cheeks turned brighter red as I leaned up against him, wrapping my arms around his neck instead of his waist. He began to stammer a bit at me with a some anxiety. I frowned a little at him. "Oh, I'm just teasing you, dear. Come on, just help me get to my room."

He nodded as I stood up, wobbling uncertainly. It seemed very much like the night before, when he had taken me to my room and practically tucked me in before, but it was different. Steve seemed a little embarrassed and disappointed, while the angst was starting to get to me. I had not gotten my chance to dance with him. As he helped me into the elevator, I smiled a little weakly at him, not entirely feeling up to my previous joy. We stayed largely in silence as the elevator moved down to our floor, but I could not stop myself from leaning against him.

I let him help me into my room, sitting down on my bed and grabbing my Captain America plushie from where I had left it that morning. He noticed me do this as I smiled nervously at him for a moment before he spoke.

"Sorry, I didn't get to dance with you." He said. "The party was busier than expected, and then with Thor's appearance..."

"It's alright. Some other time." I muttered, giving him another small smile as he sat down next to me on my bed. "I just hate parties..."

"Me too." He smiled a little bit at this. "Besides, I'm not sure if I'm a very good dancer..."

I chuckled at the man and his comment. That's right, he likely had never learned how to dance. I opened my mouth, turning back to look at him, prepared to tell him that I could teach him what little I knew, when I froze. He was looking at me with that look again. I paused and decided that drunk or not, imagination or not, I was going to do it. So I leaned forward, I closed my eyes, moving in to kiss him.

But I don't remember if I did, because I ended up passing out.

* * *

**AN: Long chapter. Bah. Took longer to write than I imagined. However, I was worried in this chapter that I teetered with the characterization. Mostly Loki. But I guess I figured he'd be a happy drunk and well, this came. We're now getting to the bits I wrote before I decided that this was going to be an actual story. So the fluffy and silly parts. And there will be some adventure at times too. Well, hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!**


	7. Chapter 6

**Ichigo55: I'm glad you liked Drunken God of Mischief. He was quite silly. Who knows if Steve will ever learn to dance? It seems that fate is conspiring against him... . No, no, that's just me.  
**

**ViolentAlice: I am so glad you like Amelia. And it's good she's not an annoying drunk with how often she gets drunk... Haha. She's disappointed for the lack of a dance with Steve as well. I'm glad you liked Drunk Loki. He is one of my favorites as well.  
**

**Smartkitty314: I appreciate the concrit! I'm glad you liked the changes, as well. I use the word 'wench' so much, I didn't even notice how much it had slipped in. And yea, I figured at least at this point, ego-stroking would be the best way to keep poor Loki calm. But tickle fights with Loki make everything better. :p  
**

**Sky's Breaker: Bam! Here you go! :)  
**

**SceneNeko: Glad you're happy to see Loki back. There will certainly be more of him to come.  
**

**Bandnerd2669: Yay for being psychic! :3 I'm glad you liked the sketch scene and I'm very glad you like that things aren't going perfectly for her. And the end shall be left up to question for now on what happened. Hehe.  
**

**Vex Matthewson: I'm glad you like Amelia/Steve and the Amelia/Loki. Loki will play a fair role in this. :)  
**

**SleepySandman: I'm glad you like it! :3**

**Shi-Koi: Fun drunks are the best kind of drunks. Can't have them be all mopey drunks.  
**

**Five Alive: Wenches! :3  
**

* * *

**The Wish Assistant  
**

By Adrienne Valentine

**Chapter Six  
**

* * *

I really needed to stop drinking so much. My head was killing me. Ugh. Somehow I had gotten changed in the middle of the night, I realized as I noticed my dress thrown over the armchair that was in the room. Or someone had been nice enough to help me change. Considering Steve had been the last one I remember in my room last night, I certainly liked the idea, but I also doubted it. He was far too much of a gentleman to change my clothes. It's possible he had called in Pepper or Natasha to do so, now that seemed more like him, but without asking, I couldn't be certain. And I have no shame admitting that I was a little embarrassed to ask.

But ow, hell, did my head hurt. I certainly must have drank too much last night and this was my punishment. Or my punishment for drinking with Loki, God of Mischief. I had probably drank about the same amount the night before last, but I had had a decent, starchy, carb filled dinner then. I had not known what to expect at the Fundraiser Party and had eaten very little. I'd never been to a fundraiser like this before, how was I supposed to know? Well, besides that I could have asked.

I grumbled at myself for a few moments more before officially pulling myself out of bed, looking at the clothes I was wearing. No, I think I changed my own clothing. I was wearing the 'Steve' shirt and some shorts I had bought the other day while out shopping for a dress for the party. Now I finally had some clothes of my own. Still not a lot, but I didn't feel like I was wearing the same thing every single day.

I puttered around my room for a little bit, putting my dress on a hanger and generally getting ready to face the world. Well, except for my pajamas. The world could deal with me wandering around in them for a day. So soon I found myself in the hallway, headed towards the kitchen, when I heard someone shouting. I winced, but for whatever crazy reason, still continued on until I was in the kitchen. Where it just so happened that the Avengers were assembled, with Loki off to one side looking bored and Nick Fury currently yelling mostly at Thor. Right in my way. I debated going around them, taking the long way by veering around the large cooking surface/breakfast bar.

But nope. There were yelling. I was grumpy, and they were in my way. I stalked through the two of them, and the two taller men barely spared me a glance until I had made my way to the Espresso Machine, sending a tight smile at Loki as he watched me set up the machine next to him.

"And there is a civilian living here that you are putting in danger-" Fury started and I realized that he was talking about me as I went to grab some milk for my latte. I stopped to look at him, despite that this conversation seemed like it was largely over and this was Fury's last ditch argument. I wonder how long they had been arguing about this. Loki, I gathered. I frowned at this line of the conversation though.

"I'm perfectly fine with Loki being here." I chipped in. Fury glared at me, but I was too hungover to care, "I did after all spend the tail end of that party getting perfectly drunk with the God, after all."

I turned back to the espresso machine, steaming milk, grinding espresso and making my latte, ignoring the rest of the argument going on behind me with a shrug. I paused, glancing at the man they were arguing about for a moment.

"Would you like one?" I asked him quietly. He frowned for a moment, the first real expression I'd seen on his face this morning.

"What is it?" He asked me in return, watching as I finished mine. I paused, and held it up for him in the cup I had snagged from on top of the machine. I hadn't added anything sweet to it yet.

"It's a latte. Try some and I can add some flavor or sweetener if you'd like." I suggested, hearing the lecture continue in the background and really wishing it would stop. I watched him as he took a sip, waiting for some sort of response. He paused, giving a thoughtful 'hm'.

"It is... Bitter." He said with a small frown. I nodded, taking the cup back and reaching into the cupboard above the machine for some sweetener. After adding some flavored sweetener, I handed the drink back to him and let him take a sip. I might have imagined the corner of his mouth twitch upwards. "This will do."

I smile and make mine as Fury finishes his lecture, practically storming off, out of the kitchen area where everyone had been having breakfast. The Avengers were gathering back around the table after the lecture from Fury. Someone had made breakfast. A rather large breakfast, actually. I pause for a moment as I watch the others return to the seats around the 'breakfast counter'. There are only two empty spots left there. Between Thor and Steve. Loki is already heading over there, with his latte in hand. I paused for a moment before moving over towards the counter with a small grimace.

Making the lattes had distracted me enough that I had been able to ignore the throbbing, but now it came back again, throbbing suddenly. And then I realized that despite that Loki had drunk far more than me, he did not seem to be suffering from a hangover at all. I glowered a little bit at the God as I realized this, following him over.

"Hungover, little Rummy?" Tony asks from somewhere on the other side of Thor as I sat down. I glared over at him and stuck out my tongue. He chuckled, but tossed something over to me. Or tried to. I felt an arm reach up beside me and I turned to see Steve going to catch it for me, but his hand closed around nothing. I frowned a little bit at this, because the rattle of something being caught indicated that it someone had caught whatever it was that Tony had thrown towards me. I looked back over towards Tony, but instead I noticed that Loki was holding a bottle of pills in his hand. He shook it, holding it up for me to see.

"What are these that you are giving my servant?" He asked Tony, who raised his eyebrow at the two of us. I groaned and reached up towards the bottle to take it from him.

"Stuff to make me feel better." I tell him with a frown. "How is it you're not hungover?"

"Your servant?" Tony asks, sounding a little surprised and almost offended, "Hey, she works for me!"

I managed to grab the bottle from Loki as I anticipated an argument between the two of them. I thought the whole thing was a little bit silly, but I was not going to argue with them at this point in time. The whole thing was silly. Opening the bottle, I downed two pills and reached forward to grab one of the plates with food on it. They had actually set a plate for me. I smile to no one in particular when Tony decided to ask me. I realized now that Loki hadn't actually replied to the man at all, quietly eating his food with an expression of mild pleasure with himself.

"When did you become his servant?" He asked me, being a little bit too loud. I frowned over at him.

"Depends. I was his 'spy' when Fury threw me at his glass cage, technically. And I was his serving wench last night. But it's all relative..." I paused before chuckling a little bit at the situation, "You know, I always dreamed of having two people fight over me... Of course, I didn't exactly imagine them fighting over who I work for... Oh well."

I shrugged and went back to eating for a moment. The whole counter of Avengers were quiet, it seemed. The whole thing unnerved me a little bit, really. Even the normally loud Tony was relatively quiet in all of this. I suppose it had to do with Loki and Fury and the whole situation. I should have paid better attention to that conversation, maybe? Naw. Not my problem. I'm still hungover and my head is just barely starting to feel better. It must just be awkward for them. Or something.

"So..." I started. The hungover one being the person insisting on talking, "Who made breakfast? This is delicious."

And just like that there was a distraction. Tony had made it, with Thor's help. Who'd known that they were such good cooks? Tony returned to his almost constantly talking self with the opening provided. Most everyone else was still quiet, and no one but Tony, Thor and I talked to Loki. The one thing that did continue bug me a little bit was Steve.

Aside from trying to grab the bottle for me, he had not interacted with me at all yet. I glanced over at him. He was eating. Quietly. I frowned and sat there staring at him for a little bit. I didn't know why he was being so quiet right then, and it made me sad. As soon as he was done eating, he disappeared from the kitchen and I lost track of him.

o0o

Turns out, Steve had gotten a mission assignment from Director Fury. That had been why Fury had come to the tower. No one had actually told him Loki was there until he walked into the kitchen with everyone except for myself sitting around the kitchen counter preparing their breakfast. He had come to the tower himself partially because he wanted to see the repairs and the upgrades for himself, not to mention he liked to keep a close eye on things. When he had found out that Loki was there, he had lost his shit.

He'd almost shot Loki before Thor had jumped in, and everyone had been yelled at for the whole thing. In the end, I had to admit that it seemed both silly and fitting. The God of Mischief had, surprisingly, not caused any problems during the argument, staying silent and out of the way as much as possible.

Bruce had gone to the labs in the Tower with Tony, while Clint and Natasha had just wandered off somewhere themselves. Steve was, of course, out on whatever mission he had been assigned. Which left me alone with the two Asgardians. Which was a bit awkward, to be honest. Thor was not my favorite Avenger, while Loki was one of my favorite characters, but hanging out with the two of them, stuck in a tower with nothing else to do. I had already showed them around the tower, or the levels that Loki was allowed to. Namely, the same levels I was largely restricted to. I had a little bit more access than the God of Mischief, but not by a lot. Thor refused to leave his brother's side as we walked around, constantly asking questions about every thing we passed by that he hadn't seen before.

Which in Stark Towers, was a lot. Eventually, there was nothing left to show them and Thor was anxious to do something.

"So what do Midgardians do to relax?" Thor asked, voice booming slightly with the question. I flinched at the noise a little, sighing.

"Well, Loki and I can't leave the building." I explain, "There are books in the library, there is television, the gym... I dunno, Tony might have board games and some cards somewhere, but with just the three of us, TV is the easiest option, really."

Thor paused for a bit, thinking, before he nodded. "Very well, we shall watch this 'Tee Vee!' I believe I have seen it before when I met Jane! We did not watch much of it, so I am very interested in watching this entertainment."

I sighed as we came back to the common room. "JARVIS,can you turn on the TV?" I asked aloud to the AI.

"What shall I put on for you?" It asked me. I paused, thinking about what they could watch. There were a lot of things that they could like, but since Loki looked rather disinterested (having grabbed a book from the Library on our way back up), and Thor looked entirely too excited, it gave me an idea. With a grin, I answered.

"How about My Little Pony?" I suggest with a grin. The AI said nothing, but the screen clicked on as the show started playing on the screen on the far wall. Loki sat on the couch with his book, and I smirked as Thor stood there for a moment, staring at the screen. Moving towards the couch, I saw next to Loki, before getting squished between the two Asgardians. Why Thor couldn't have sat on one of the armchairs or something, I don't know, but apparently it was not an option. Scooting a little closer to the black haired God, I waited for Thor's reaction as the first episode began.

o0o

This sort of trying to find things to do went on for a few more days. Bruce disappeared on day nine to who knows where, saying nothing in particular to me about where he was going. Not that I was surprised at all by this. The Doctor and I didn't have much to say to each other. I wasn't into science or anything of the sort, he wasn't my favorite character, and while I didn't say that, I think I had a vague idea of that. He didn't seem to care too much about it either way, though. He just seemed to think of me as another person who was there.

Clint didn't seem to entirely like me. I think when he'd come around when Natasha had started visiting me I had started to get on his nerves when I was asking him constantly about archery lessons. I really wanted to know how to shoot a bow. When I'd gone to camp when I was younger I had learned how to somewhat. Of course, I'd been twelve when I'd last even really held a bow, so needless to say, it wasn't anything I could still do. So I'd asked... Quite a few times. Natasha was hard to read. I still couldn't tell if she liked me, she had said good bye when she left on day ten with Clint. But she always sounded bored, didn't seem to go out of the way to talk to me, and, well, I had to admit that she was a spy. I had just given up trying to figure out if she was genuine or not. It didn't matter too much. She'd come and spent a little bit of time with the Asgardians and I had been hanging out, but not a lot.

Tony seemed interested in keeping an eye on Loki, which including teasing him and giving him a hard time whenever he could. About losing, mostly. I had to admit that I was pretty glad that Tony didn't know about the God of Mischief being a frost giant, or what that meant. I don't think that knowledge would have gone over very well in general. After all, neither of the Asgardians had mentioned it, and I still believed that Loki didn't want it to be known. He likely would never openly admit to it. That was something I did want to ask the man about, but the problem was I wouldn't want to bring it up when Tony could find out.

Steve was still gone on his mission, and shortly afterwards Thor had left to help him, along with, I supposed, the others. That was day thirteen. We had spent most of our time doing small things. Such as board games, Thor obsessively watching My Little Pony (who would have guessed?), Loki reading whatever book he could get his hands on and generally trying to 'behave'. Without his magic and his brother's constant, insistent presence, he couldn't really do much of anything. Which was a bit boring. Activities that Thor liked were not generally things that Loki enjoyed doing. Like sparring. He had tried to get both of us to test ourselves. That had not been fun. We'd both refused. I would have been injured very quickly. I hadn't yet entirely been cleared for my broken ribs. Especially if I was going to even pretend to fight Thor.

But Thor and the others leaving to take care of something or other meant that I was left alone with the God of Mischief and a couple of SHIELD agents. The agents mostly just made sure that Loki didn't leave. While they were there, they largely left us to our own was still a little bit odd. He did still treat me like a servant, after were sitting in the library when he got the book he had been reading, he frowned at me.

"I have read the literature in this library that seems interesting. Is there anything else to do here?" He asked me with a frown. I paused from where I was looking through the books for something to read. There was... Hm. Not much. We would have to find things to start doing since we were stuck in here. The Avengers levels had been largely under-furnished since no one really stayed here besides Steve, Tony and I.

"I dunno, chess?" I suggested. It was one of the few things that was available to us. He gave me a curious look, raising an eyebrow. I stood there for a moment before walking over to where I'd found the wooden chess table, and looking for the chess pieces. They were, perhaps not too surprisingly, right next to it. I set up the board as the Asgardian came over, taking a seat and sitting down on one side.

"What is this game?" He asks me as I finish putting the pieces on the board. I pause before proceeding to explain the game to him. Which pieces can do what, where they go, how you win, so on and so forth. It was like a war game they had on Asgard, apparently, but not quite. So we started. He let me play the white set. I moved my pawn, remembering how much I used to like this game.

He stared at the board for a few moments, looking at it, concentrating before he picked up a piece and moved it. We played for a few minutes in silence before he said anything.

"So we are fictional to you?" he asks me out of the blue. I paused and frowned at him, my hand hovering above my knight. It was an odd question.

"Well, where I'm from, yes. But it's hard to consider someone fictional while sitting next to them." I answered. I did still think of them as fictional first sometimes, thinking of their comic books before the person standing near me.

"And these stories... They detail our lives?" he asked, moving his bishop to take an exposed pawn. I frowned. He was better at this than me already. Not that it was a big surprise. I nodded at his question, trying to figure out where to move my piece as I was currently losing. "And you know everything about our lives?"

I think I know where he's getting with this line of questioning. I nod, a little hesitantly. He says nothing for a long time, taking my chess pieces one by one. He's never played this game before, apparently, but he's quite good at it. I have three pawns of his. He has four pawns, a knight and my bishop, and he's chasing me across the board with ease. Frowning, I really am losing badly at this game. Not that I was entirely surprised. Time goes by as we continue, and soon he wins. Well, he paused, holding his knight and trapping the king with another piece.

"What is the term...?" He asks me with a smirk. I chuckle at him loudly at him, "Ah yes... Check-Mate."

Stretching, I stood from where I was sitting. I excused myself to the God before quickly ducking out to use the bathroom. Nodding at the agent, I passed by and into the nearby restroom. I wasn't entirely surprised when the agent by the door gave me a dirty look. On my way out or when I was on my way back. While I had gotten along with a fair amount of them, there were also those that didn't like me, of course. The ones who didn't know my background, but instead only knew of my 'sudden rise' and now a few of them knew of my friendships with Tony and Steve. I wasn't surprised when I caught something whispered as I passed by.

"Filthly little traitor." He snarked at me as I passed by. Ignoring it, I went back into the library. No use making a big deal about it. I smiled down at Loki as I approached. He had set up the chess board again, waiting for me. He was frowning, deeply, his eyes focused on the agent by the door. Why was he practically glaring at the man? Had he...?

"Why do you let him insult you?" He asks me, quietly. This was definitely something I was not expecting. I shrugged at the God of Mischief, taking a seat across from him at the chess table again.

"It's not a big deal." I explain to him. He gave me the white pieces again, I notice, moving my first piece. He raised an eyebrow at me and my comment as he picked up his own piece. We continued playing the game in silence for a few moments until he spoke up again.

"How about we make his day less than ideal?" He whispered across the chess table, a grin suddenly spreading across his face. Raising my eyebrow, I wait for the God to say something. It takes him only a moment to explain the plan as he continues to best me at chess. I laugh at his choice in tactics, nodding with a smile at the idea that he proposes.

o0o

Three hours after our chess game, the agent is covered in pink paint, with pictures of the attack recorded and now on his facebook page as well as sent to Fury. He had left the Tower, annoyed at us, but despite that he had been unharmed, there was now also a green 'Loki'd' on the back of his suit. He was not going to like me even more for this. It was a small price to pay. I smirked at the God as we returned to the library and our chess table. He seemed to like this game a fair amount.

"I think we can find another use for that paint..." I comment with a smirk.

* * *

******AN: Hey lovelies. This took too long. I was wanting to do a scene with Thor, but I quickly found out that it didn't turn out how I wanted. I'm going to be continuing to try to include more scenes with the others instead of just with Loki, Steve and Tony. So I wouldn't be averse to any suggestions you, my dear readers, might think would be amusing. I'm not too happy with the chapter, and I might revise it or I might just leave it alone. We'll see. Anyways. Reviews are loved, my dears!  
**


	8. Chapter 7

**SceneNeko: I'm glad you liked it. The pranking shall continue, of course.  
**

**Scaevola2: You're allows to give short reviews in favor of college. **

**Ichigo55: I'm glad you like the idea of Thor being a Brony. I don't know how good Loki would be at 3D Chess. Probably pretty good.  
**

**Vex Matthewson: Ooooh. Banner and science-y things! That could definitely be fun. :3  
**

**Bandnerd2669: Glad mellow didn't mean bad. No worries about Steve. Things will be explained.  
**

**NixieGirl: I thought it would be more realistic if she didn't just get on with everyone perfectly, and I'm glad you like Loki's prodding into pranking. :)  
**

**ViolentAlice: Thor's not so much a closest Brony for long... lol. Shenanigans are fun, and Amelia/Steve bonding time shall happen soon enough. But I'm glad you liked.  
**

* * *

**Mischief, Rum and Comic Book Wishes  
**

**(Formerly 'The Wish Assistant')  
**

By Adrienne Valentine

**Chapter Seven  
**

* * *

The Avengers were gone for a little over a week, Steve had been gone since Loki had arrived and no one had explained to me, despite my constant questioning, why that was or where they had gone. The best I got, if they said anything, was "That's classified." It annoyed me. A lot. But what could I do? It wasn't as if I had much choice in the matter in the end. While I technically was a SHIELD agent, I had practically no clearance. Maybe if I had actually listened during the day when Fury had arrived and explained the mission that had sent Steve off.

The whole thing bothered me. I wanted to do something about it, to know what they were up to, but... I was beginning to feel like some sort of mother hen or something. I sighed, hand hovering over a chess piece.

"You are beginning to look liked my moth- like Frigga." He commented as I finally moved my piece. He was forcing me to actually spend more time on where I could place my pieces, "It is pointless to worry about them."

"Yea. A bit silly of me, isn't it?" Chuckling at myself, I waited for him to go, nodding a little bit in response. He nodded at me as he moved his own piece.

"Indeed." Was all he said. I didn't say anything else about it, and neither did he, but the comment was amusing. Almost as if he was trying to cheer me up.

"So this is what you guys have been doing while we were gone." Tony's voice sounded from the entrance of the library. I couldn't stop the squeal that came from my mouth at the sound. He started heading over, I watched him from my seat, twisting around. "What are you wearing, Ames?"

I frowned a little bit, looking down at my outfit. It wasn't that odd... Was it? I pouted a little bit at him, then noticed Thor behind him with a small wave. "I'm wearing clothes, Tony. I shouldn't be surprised that you don't recognize them. You're probably used to people without them."

"Haha. Very funny. Seriously, are you two trying to recreate Sherlock Holmes or something?" Tony snarked back at me with a grin.

"Lady Amelia, you look fit to journey to Asgard!" Thor thundered out from where he was by the door as I stood up to give Tony a hug as soon as he walked over to us. He gave a half-armed hug back in return. I smiled at him as he looked at the chess set.

"Thank you Thor." I answered, pausing as Tony moved my piece for me. Loki frowned at him, but said nothing. "Is... everyone back?"

"Well, Bruce, Clint and Natasha aren't coming back to the Tower for now, but Spangled boy should be back later today." I smiled at Tony's answer, and I was not surprised when he looked back up at me and wouldn't let the topic of my outfit drop. "Seriously, where did you get that dress? And why?"

"Well, I found out that I do have an account for expenses..." I explained. After having complained to JARVIS, Pepper and the Agents that had been around that I only had a few pairs of clothes. I still didn't know if it was set up by SHIELD or by Tony, but it made little difference. "So I went shopping online and well... I ended up finding a Victorian clothing site and... Well, I couldn't help myself... It's like a costume party every day!"

Tony raised an eyebrow at me, but said nothing else. I shrugged, it was a little ostentatious, sure, but it wasn't that bad, surely. The Neo-Victorian outfit was purple and grey, with a bustle skirt, a corset, a bolero jacket and a long skirt. I pouted as the two of them continued to play chess. That had been my game, but now Loki seemed to be taking longer to make his own move. Someone who could actually play, it seemed. Or more correctly, play on the God of Mischief's level.

o0o

The dress didn't last too long after the Thor and Tony had returned. Or, more correctly, the entire outfit didn't stay on. I'd taken off the skirt, bustle and corset, but I was still wearing the dark grey top and the purple bolero, now wearing some jeans instead. Which was actually largely because I'd tripped over the skirt and almost ruined it.

We were in the Kitchen, making dinner. Well, everyone was making dinner except Loki, that was. He didn't seem to want to help. It was a bit amusing, to be honest, but judging from Thor's only above basic skills in the kitchen (where he'd learned from who knows where), it was possible that the Asgardian Prince didn't know how to cook. Speculation on my part, but... It was an interesting thought. One thing was bothering me a little bit, however. About everything.

"So..." I started, standing between the two other 'cooks'. "What was it you guys were off doing, anyways?"

"Well, apparently Cap's old war enemies made a reappearance recently." Tony commented in the sort of off-handed, casual way that he sometimes did.

"Hydra?" I ask, he nods, but doesn't say anything else, moving away from me and I get the feeling he's trying to not answer me. Frowning, I turn towards Thor instead, who looks equally as hesitant to provide any answers. Pouting, I continue asking anyways. "What happened? What brought them back onto the radar? Why won't you answer me...?"

Now I was whining, but I didn't really care. They weren't telling me anything and this was just frustrating. I paused, debating, then decided. If they weren't going to tell me, I wasn't going to help with dinner. Yes, it was childish. No, I didn't care. It wasn't as if it made much of a difference anyways. Tony had been the one largely making food, with Thor and I just hovering and helping when we could. So both of the men didn't even take notice.

Instead, I sat there next to Loki, continuing to pout at the men. Pausing for a moment, I reached over and poked the God of Mischief. He twitched and I was tempted to start tickling him. I hadn't really done so since the first night Loki had arrived, and I was very tempted. So I poked him again, he let out a short chuckle before glaring over at me. I grinned back, getting prepared to tickle him when I hear the door open. Jumping to attention, I keep an eye out for exactly who it was that I was looking for. Another squeal and I go to stand. Tripping over the legs of the stool and almost falling over. Except that someone had grabbed the back of my jacket, keeping me from falling entirely onto my face. I kick the stool away from my legs and pull myself back up with a little help from Loki. I give a nod of thanks before finishing my charge towards the Captain.

I stopped short of glomping him, grinning broadly. "Hey there Steve."

"Hello Amelia." He says, smiling down at me. He looks tired, and he really does sound like he needs a good rest. Almost two weeks out investigating and dealing with Hydra, people he had likely thought gone. Hopefully forever. Well, certainly looks like he needs a hug. So I do just that. Wrapping my arms around his waist, it doesn't take long for me to realize that this is exactly what he needed. Especially when he hugs me back in his gentle manner. Soon though he lets me go, stepping back and he's blushing again.

"Now, you need to relax for a bit." I tell him. Yea, I'm definitely starting to feel like a sort of den mother or something. I drag him over to sit down on the stool. The one that is next to my own seat. He's watching me slightly amused as I grab a plate and serve up the pasta Tony has just barely finished cooking. He makes a noise of protest at my actions, but says nothing else as I fret over the man. Loki, however, doesn't give me the same courtesy.

"There, you can stop your worrying now." He comments with a small smirk over at me, "It has been tiring to listen to."

o0o

"Steve, take off your shirt." I tell the Captain as I climb unto the back of the couch and perch myself right behind him. He paused, looking up at me curiously as I made myself comfortable. Or tried to. With one leg on either side of him, despite his tall height, I was still a little too far above him for this to work. Pausing, I had to amend my statement. "Actually, take off your shirt and sit down at the bottom of the couch."

"What are you doing?" He asks me as I push him forward a little bit, sliding down behind him before he gets a chance to do anything about it. For a moment, I am comfortably squished between the back of the couch and Steve's back with a grin. The next moment, however, he does as instructed, still sending me a curious look at what I'm doing. He's hesitant, but he takes off his shirt as instructed. I can't help but let out a girlish giggle when he does so. I should explain to him what I'm doing, but has this man never gotten a shoulder rub before? Probably not. I don't explain anything to him for a moment, instead placing my hands on his shoulders and pressing down hard with my thumbs.

"You know, I'm not used to people with so much muscle..." I comment as I try to work through his shoulders. "This may take longer than I expected..."

But I continue on until my hands start cramping, trying to work out any tightness in his shoulders that I can. My hands start hurting fairly quickly as he really is tighter wound than most people that I give shoulder rubs to. Which is mostly women, actually. And soft, non-muscular nerds. Well, no one this buff, at least. It didn't help that I'd done this without massage oils, either.

"You have not given me any massages." Loki protests from his seat next to us on the couch. Steve had only been back for a day now, and already Loki was teasing the Captain when he got the chance. And now he's pouting. "And you are my servant."

"You've never asked?" I offer him hesitantly, before shrugging, and using my forearm to get at some of the tighter muscles on him.

"You give such privileges to the Captain." He huffs, crossing his arms over his chest, leaning back. I stick out my tongue at him before finally pulling my hands away, rubbing them slightly as they cramp.

"But I think that's it for today." I say, leaning forward and patting Steve gently. "You are too tense for one rub, though. You need to let me do this more, Steve."

"Uh... Sure." He says, blushing once again. Chuckling, I lean back, not moving my legs from either side of him, however, smirking down at him.

"Lady Amelia, may we watch that show again?" Thor asked. "The one with the ponies?"

He was seated in the arm chair next to Loki, and we had been watching... Something. History channel or something of the sort that Loki had been watching. He glared over at his brother when he heard the request. I only cared that Steve hadn't put his shirt back on yet.

"Loki's show is about to end, and it is your turn to pick a show. So I suppose..." I comment to the Asgardians with a shrug. Loki gives me a half-hearted glare, still pouting at me like a teenager. I shook my head at the man.

"Ethereal Voice! Put on the show with the Ponies." Thor rumbled, and soon it started playing. Of course, I did notice that Loki, however begrudgingly he acted, was also watching the show. Just far less... Enthusiastically.

o0o

Thor had been watching the show for another two hours. No one had argued with him for wanting to watch it for so long. Not even the God of Mischief. Steve had moved back onto the couch next to me, squishing me between himself and Loki, though he had put his shirt back on. This was how Tony found us when he returned from some sort of meeting, boxes of pizza in hand. He stopped practically in front of the screen before giving us a disbelieving look.

"With you around, Ames, I'm learning not to ask what the hell is going on." He says, shaking his head at us. It is a bit ridiculous, after all, but he's right, it is becoming almost common-place for me to get involved in these ridiculous situations with the Avengers and Loki. When Thor motions angrily for Tony to get out of the way, he complies, setting down the boxes onto the table in front of us. "How do you guys feel about celebrating a bit?"

That's when I noticed he had some liquor in his other hand. Beer from the look of it. And Happy came in carrying another box of liquor. Raising my eyebrow, I couldn't help but wonder what had prompted all of this. Of course, I didn't complain when he started handing out liquor to people. Thor, Loki and Steve got very strong liquor, while Tony set down the beer in front of me while Happy took the box into the kitchen. I screwed my face up at the bottle of beer.

"What, no rum for me?" I tease him, holding up the lack-luster bottle of beer. It was probably a very good brand of beer, but... I only drank beer when I was already smashed, or as a chaser.

"Not tonight, you have work in the morning. You can't afford to be hungover." He tells me, and I pout again. But then shrug instead.

"Well, can I have wine instead?" I ask instead. He nods at me and I scurry off to grab a bottle of wine for myself, and this is when I get my idea. Loki and I had been wanting to do something, and with Tony seemingly determined to get drunk. I smirk as I grab a bottle of greek Samos from the wine cabinet, as well as a wine glass from the cupboard. Returning to the common room, I notice that Tony has changed the program, which has left Thor pouting. When I noticed Tony was already down one beer himself and working on the second one, this looked like an excellent time to do something. Sitting down between Loki and Steve, I smirked over at the God of Mischief, holding my glass out to him for a moment before uncorking the drink.

And watching Tony get as smashed as possible. He was encouraging the rest of us (except for me) to do the same. Which didn't take too long, actually. Shortly after he got pretty drunk, I gave a great big yawn, stretching.

"Well, I'm going to bed, then." I announce. Tony waves over at me, swinging the bottle of liquor he had been drinking, sloshing it a bit. Steve looks a little bit tipsy, but says nothing, except he's pouting now a little bit at me. I smile at him, giving him a little wave as I walked out. As much fun as it would be to be the not-drunk one between the two of us, my plan was already in motion.

I went to my room and waited with my ear to the door for a few moments. I heard Loki excuse himself as well, Thor thundering to walk with him. Okay, small problem there. No big deal. I waited until their footsteps disappeared before starting to crawl out of my room with 'the goods'. Literally, crawl. I had to sneak past both Tony and Steve. There were drunk, there was that, which was going to make this easier, but they were still super heroes. So I was crawling on my hands and knees down the hall. I heard them chatting in the common room. I had to get to the elevator, past the two of them. Oh boy. Except...

"I think it's time for you to get to bed as well, Tony." Steve said through a slight slur. I bit my tongue to stop me from chuckling at the whole scene.

But before they disappeared completely into the elevator, I heard Tony mutter something to Steve. "She likes you, you know..."

Steve had a reply of his own, but the door closing stopped me from actually hearing whatever it was that he said. With a pout, I chose to ignore it for the moment. Didn't want to get my hopes up anyways in the end.

In a few moments they were gone, and I could get off of my hands and knees. Now crouching, I made my way to the elevators, pressing the button, waiting until it dinged and ducking in. I headed down to the level where the Asgardians were staying. Loki was waiting for me by the entrance of the elevator. He ducked in as soon as the door opened and we started heading down to the basement. I didn't press that button. I frowned as we lowered. Had we been found out. Had Loki somehow ninja-pressed the button without me seeing?

No, he was giving me the same look. Instead, the doors opened as we reached the basement. I have to admit, I was half-hiding behind Loki when the doors opened, only to find Pepper standing there with her arms crossed.

"I thought Loki wasn't supposed to leave the living quarters." She said as I peaked out from behind him. I pouted at her. "So what are you doing?"

I shift for a moment from foot to foot as we stood there in the open elevator. We've been caught. "We were going to paint Tony's lab... We were gonna play a prank on him..."

She said nothing, standing there staring at us before stepping into the elevator with us, a grin of her own spreading across her face.

* * *

******AN: Shorter Chapter this time, but only by a little bit. And there has been a name change. Hope you guys like the new title. 'The Wish Assistant' was a working title anyways, and no longer really fits. So there is the beginning of and explanation for Steve's actions. The hard part is giving enough information without her being everywhere or giving too much away. As always, reviews are loved.  
**


	9. Chapter 8

**Smartkitty314: It gets better. :)**

**Ichigo55: Haha. Amelia is a bit too excited. Of course Tony is going to get pranked! :3**

**Sceneneko: Confidence is relative in this case, though. Glad you're liking it!**

**asnanime: I'm glad you love it! Here's more!**

**Marskatr: Mwaha. Pepper strikes me as the kind who would prank Tony, for the right reasons, at least. But yea, I'm glad you liked the title change and the story-style. Of course, right now Slice-of-life leaves Amelia bored often. lol**

**Poseidonwave: Samos is delicious. :3**

**Sleepysandman: I'm so happy to hear this is your favorite story right now! :D Loki is awesome, and I'm glad you're liking Steve too!**

**Vex Matthewson: Hehe. You shall see the results... And Loki likes to tease. **

**Scaevola2: A fun prank. :3**

**XxxImNotOkayxxX: I'm glad you're laughing at this! And I'm glad you like Amy as well!**

**Bandnerd2669: Well, poor Steve was more preoccupied, and yea, she got excited! She's just a little fond of the two of them. lol.****  
**

**Mischief, Rum and Comic Book Wishes  
**

**(Formerly 'The Wish Assistant')  
**

By Adrienne Valentine

**Chapter Eight  
**

* * *

The next morning JARVIS woke me up at 7am. For 'work'. Which was more of me answering phone calls from some of the local newspapers, answering questions about Tony's appearance later today. Lots of annoying and rather asinine questions. A lot of 'Is Mr. Stark going to be appearing in his Iron Man Suit?' mostly. A ton of those kinds of questions, actually. Answering phone calls kept me busy well into the morning.

I was in the middle of explaining to a blogger of a website I'd never heard of that I was not privy to Tony's... Ahem... 'Length' and therefore could not answer that question (Loki practically giggling on the couch across from me, and Steve blushing brilliantly next to me) when the man in question 'called'.

Well, more like took over the television screen that Thor had been intently watching Twilight Sparkle tell the story of her cutie mark to the 'blank flanks'. We could all tell, I think, how annoyed the man was by the fact that he'd done this. (More surprising was the fact that Thor had yet to protest.)

"Ames..." He started, once again reminding me eerily of my father when I was younger. I grinned innocently at the screen. "How did you do it?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Tony. Do what?" I ask him sweetly. I don't know if he wants to say anything in front of the others right then.

"Amelia Samuels, how did...?" He started, before stopping, frowning on the screen and seeming to realize something. "Pepper."

There was ringing, and soon Pepper's face was on the screen now as well. She was smirking on the screen next to him in her calmer manner. "Hey Amy. Hello Tony. You're running late."

"Someone painted my Iron Man suit." He snapped at her, us. Whoever. I couldn't contain myself at this point. I burst out giggling at this point. Pepper cracked a grin at this point, and Loki's grin broadened.

"Well maybe next time, Tony, you shouldn't invite every woman in Manhattan into your bed." Pepper said non-nonchalantly before clicking off screen. Tony's mouth opened and closed dumbly a few times before he turned his attention back to Loki and me. Glaring for a moment.

"Damn it." Tony swore, clicking off the screen before going back to Thor's show.

At this point, Loki and I broke out into uncontrollable laughter, practically falling over into Steve's lap in the process. Well, I ended up on Steve's shoulder. Loki was sprawled across the other couch looking fittingly 'God'ly. Steve gave me a curious look.

"What happened?" He asked me. Of course, I was too busy laughing to answer, so Loki took over.

"We painted his Suit bright pink." He said through a chuckle.

"Just in time for him to make a speech at a women's center." I added. That had been the main reason, after all, that Pepper had let us do it. Well, that and what Tony had said. Despite their relationship, he was still a notorious flirt, and even Pepper got jealous sometimes, I guess. Not quite sure, she didn't explain it to me. Steve joined in our laughter with a chuckle, while Thor looked over at us with a small smile. I noticed he was focusing his attention largely on Loki while he was smiling.

o0o

"I loathe being stuck in this infernal building." Loki growled. I sighed in agreement at him, laying out on the couch with a book. After the 'Pink Iron Man' prank, Tony had not let me take any more calls. He hadn't said why, though. I wondered if it was because he didn't want me saying anything bad to the reporters. Not that I was going to, but... I was now bored. They really needed to give me more things to do.

Loki had quickly gotten bored, especially since Tony made JARVIS restrict our television so that we couldn't watch the news report. He was such a spoil sport. The God of Mischief had started pouting since, especially when his brother had pointed out that he was having fun with a mortal. I might have taken it personally if I hadn't known that it was more likely he had gotten upset by the comment because it had come from his 'brother'.

While they were starting to get along somewhat better, every time Thor mentioned it, it would set them back. It made me sigh when it happened, but I wasn't even sure that Loki was aware that he was doing it. Steve might have noticed something as well, but he had gotten annoyed with the prince's complaints and left to work out. I had pouted mightily at Loki in return for it. He had not noticed. Or pretended not to notice. It was hard to tell with him sometimes.

"I'm with you. I hate this." I groaned, setting aside my book with a frown.

"Lady Amelia, you can not leave the building either?" Thor asked me, frowning.

"Well, I can if someone goes with me." I explain with a slight shrug of my shoulders. Pausing, "Well, specifically it has to be SHIELD personnel."

We lapsed into silence for a moment. Thor had turned off the television at some point, and was no longer watching anything. Tony had turned off the 'show with the ponies' as well, perhaps. I had gone to the library for a book and had returned with the television off.

"I would kill to go out and get a burger right now." I whined, flipping onto my back and stretching out.

"You don't have to kill for that, miss Amelia." Steve cut in, appearing in my field of vision above me. I smiled up at him.

"Oh, it's a figure of speech, Steve." I tease him, sticking my tongue out a little bit at him as I sit up and face him.

"There's, uh... a burger joint down the street that's been here since I was a teenager." He tells me, "We could go there for lunch."

I jump out off of the couch, a grin plastered on my face. "Let me get changed!"

I practically squeal, running off to my room with a grin. I change in my room rather quickly, mostly just throwing on a pair of jeans instead of the billionth pair of lazy pants I owned. Slipping on a pair of flats and grabbing my things. _ I am actually going to get out of this building, and have an actual burger and_- _Ow. Pants. One foot a time._ I really did not injure myself too much, actually. I run back into the hall and, actually right into Steve, trying to suppress my grin. He looks like he has changed from exercising as well.

Sadly, I missed that. But I'll survive. Instead I focus on smiling up at the blue eyed super soldier as he holds onto my shoulders to keep me steady. With his help, we start heading out. I send a big wave to Loki, whose expression is somewhere between a scowl and a smirk as Steve leads me to the Elevator. It dings and we go in. I'm practically bouncing on the balls of my feet as the elevator dings down. The last time I got out of the building was with Natasha when we went to buy clothes for the fundraiser party. With that I didn't even know if she trusted me; as pessimistic as it sounds, I wouldn't be surprised if she'd shot me if I'd started running too far ahead. Or at least tackled me. Shooting me might have been a bit extreme...

But Steve... Steve was different. He was honest, he was going with me to this burger joint to be nice, because I'd complained about being stuck. I doubted that he even worried about me running off. If it weren't dictated by Fury, he likely wouldn't worry about me going out to get a burger.

He was surprisingly quiet as the elevator went down, but when I smiled at him, he smiled back. We arrived in the lobby, and he was very gentlemanly, letting me step out of the elevator first, opening the door(s) for me as we stepped out unto the street. The differences between going out with Natasha before and going out with Steve were striking. First off, we were walking there. Giving me time to look around as we moved, taking in the sights of the half-block that we were traveling.

"Have you ever been to New York?" He asked me as we passed by an ice cream place on the corner. "Uh. Before all of this, that is."

"No, I'm from the West Coast. Seattle area." I tell him with a slight shrug. "Most of my travels to big cities were when I was too young to remember, but they were almost all in California."

"I've been to Seattle. It's a nice city." He nods slightly to me with a small smile as we come upon the burger joint, him once again opening the door for me like a gentleman. I curtsey slightly (despite a lack of skirt) with a teasing grin, "I can show you around New York sometime."

"I'd love that, Steve." Beaming, I follow him to a small booth, sitting across from him.

A waitress gives us two menus as she passes by, and the place reminds me of an old fashioned diner. Well. Sort of. I haven't been to many old-fashioned diners, so I'm only guessing here. He barely glances at it, before setting it back down, but me, I'm frowning. There are...So many options! I pout up at him a little bit.

"I don't know what to get." I whine slightly, but then, brighten up with an idea. "What do you suggest? Since this was your suggestion."

He pauses now, glancing at the menu again. "You might like the Empire State."

I raise an eyebrow at the name, but when the waitress comes back over and we order, that's exactly what I get. I can't help but notice the smile that comes unto his face when I do, though. He does have a nice smile, and I can't help but smile back at him and I feel my cheeks heat up slightly. Burgers and shakes with Captain America. I never thought I'd ever do something like this, but the whole thing makes me smile. Really nice of him.

o0o

We end up heading back to the Tower shortly after eating. Tony would get over the prank soon, (hopefully) and have me back answering phones shortly. Or so I assumed. Amusingly, he'd insisted on paying for lunch. Silly, but likely his forties mentality or something. (I'd forgotten my cash in my hurry, and only had a credit card, so I didn't protest. Much. Okay, I pouted at him, which made him blush very cutely, which was fun.) And he'd once again gone and opened the doors for me, and we were once again in the elevator quietly. This time, however, he was the one who kept moving as the elevator moved upwards. Shifting and glancing over at me, it made me smile a little and wonder what had gotten into him. He smiled back at me, opening his mouth and - Ding.

"Captain Rogers, there you are." Says Phil as the elevator door opens, giving me a brief, polite nod. Steve immediately stands straighter and looks serious as the agent continues, "I need you to come with me."

And then Agent Coulson steps into the elevator and I step out. "This is my stop." I say, not letting myself frown. Steve does, I notice. So I call as the doors start to shut. "Hey, don't be gone too long, you still have to show me the rest of New York."

As soon as the doors shut I realize that this isn't actually my floor. Or any of the 'living quarters'. Frowning, I realize I actually don't know what level this is. So instead of being a good little girl like I should, I decide to go down the hallway a little bit. I hear a door open behind me and I have only a moment to turn around and look before I hear Pepper, watching her step out.

"How was your date?" She asks me with a small smile. I frown, a little confused at her comment. My... date? What- Oh.

"That wasn't a date." I correct her easily with a shrug. "We just went out to lunch, that's all."

She's giving me a look that I can best describe as 'oh really now?', as if expecting me to change my story or something. Why would I change my story? It was only lunch. It couldn't be anything else, that would just be a bit of a stretch. So I give her back my best 'yes, really, it was just lunch' look. Not a look I was used to giving, actually. Especially not with Pepper. In general, I didn't see Pepper enough to know her facial expressions, much less have her understand what my expression is supposed to be. Finally she shrugs, seemingly giving up.

"Whatever you say." She says with a smirk, "I wouldn't insist that to him though."

I chuckle at her. I know I'm not going to have to worry about that, but why bother correcting her? And we walk back to the elevator and I head back up to living quarter, while she heads to Tony's private levels.

o0o

Steve hadn't come back in time for dinner, and Loki and I are getting ready to eat dessert in the common room. Italian Gelato. Tony had brought some back with him as a 'peace offering' for our prank. Apparently his appearance at the women's center in his pink Iron Man suit had gone better than expected. He'd managed to spin it that he had chosen the color in support of the project. A heiress in attendance who Tony had slept with (and pissed off) had donated one hundred thousand dollars just because of his 'change of heart'. It had been a positive PR stunt, it turned out.

Having just barely returned, he was still in the kitchen with Thor getting his dinner. (Thor was, no surprise, still eating voraciously.)

"What is this?" He asks me as I hand him the small bowl with the pink-ish red frozen dessert, taking the spoon and poking it uncertainly.

"Blood Orange flavor." I explain. It was definitely a good flavor choice. I'd have to compliment the man on his choice when he came in.

"Morbid." The God of Mischief replies with a half-smirk as I take a small bite of my own bowl. He'd made me carry them into this room. "Is that some Midgardian fruit?"

I nod at him and explain, "It's like a regular orange, but it's blood red on the inside. It's really popular in Italy. Because it's good. Have some."

He stares at the bowl for a moment longer, spoon in hand warily. He looks rather silly, sitting there with the spoonful of gelato as if distrusting. I watch him as he takes a tentative bite of the Italian ice cream. His face lights up like a child with delight and passes rather quickly back to an almost bored one.

"It is passable." He says, I smirk at him as he continues to eat. When I notice something. His face, around his mouth, starts turning blue. Blue as in- Uh oh. Jumping up, I grab him by the arm and pull him off of the couch, dragging him to my room before Tony comes in and notices and asks questions and- Well, now we're in my room with the door shut behind me and I'm surprised to see him watching me with a raised eyebrow, holding both bowls in his hand. "What was that about?"

He doesn't quite snap at me. Surprised, very likely, by my actions. I frown and point towards the vanity of to the side. He walks over to it and frown deeply when he notices his own blue-skinned plight.

"I figured your wouldn't want Tony to see." I explain. No one had called Loki anything but an Asgardian. No one had mentioned his Jotun nature. I hadn't brought it up. He pauses as he sets down the bowls on the tabletop. He reaches up and touches his skin as it returns to its 'normal' color. He glares a little at the bowls, stepping away. Under different circumstances, this might have been funny. But I suppose the man was extremely insecure about his true nature.

"Thank you." He says, so quietly that I'm not sure if I even heard him. He walk over and sits on my bed, a little dejectedly. He motions towards the bowls. "Have mine. I cannot-"

"You liked it, though!" I protest, cutting him off, "I don't care if you turn blue."

He continues to frown, shaking his head. Pouting, I walk over to the bowls before getting an idea. Turning away from the vanity, I head into the bathroom just next to it, ducking in and closing it behind me so he doesn't see what I'm up to. Digging through the drawers by the sink, I eventually find the stick of blue cream eyeshadow. I'd done something like this with Sarah before, and it had worked. So here's hoping that it worked on the God of Mischief. I scribble the make-up across my face as much as I can, until my face looks like a silly blue with lines and dots of where I didn't quite fill it in. But I'm doing this quickly. Facing away from the bed as I come out of the bathroom, I grab both bowls before walking over to him. He's still pouting slightly, staring down at his hands.

"You eat your gelato." I say stubbornly. He looks up and for a moment is taken aback by the sight of my now-blue face. Before he bursts into laughter. After a moment, he subsides into chuckles and takes one of the bowls from me.

"I'm supposed to be the one giving you orders." He teases me a little, but soon he starts actually eating his ice cream, and despite slowly turning blue, he is smiling softly and enjoying his gelato. Good. I don't think anyone has really ever taken the time to make him feel accepted. Besides his brother, that is. The movies, and most of the comics, implied that most of the Asgardians; the Warriors three, Lady Sif, Heimdal; tolerated him or cared for him as Thor's brother at best. Entirely didn't trust him, perhaps even hated him at worst. I smile over at him broadly, and he returns the expression. Neither of us say anything, though. I catch the creak of the door open and glare over, expecting Tony. Instead I see Thor peeking in.

He looks surprised by my blue face for a moment before he notices Loki's blue face as well as we sit eating the gelato. He smiles and closes the door slowly as I stick my tongue out at him. I think Loki must have noticed, but he says nothing about it. Instead he decides to ride the same train of questioning as Pepper.

"So, did you enjoy your date with the dear Captain?" He teases, pretending to seem jealous. I chuckle at him.

"It was not a date." I insist to him. He raises an eyebrow at me.

"I must be mistaken, I am not familiar with Midgardian courtship, after all." He says with a shrug. "It certainly seemed like a 'date', however."

"It didn't end in sex. Not even close." I explain to him what makes something a date, "He didn't even kiss me. That's what makes it a date. We were just friends going out to lunch."

"Do you not want him to court you?" He asks me, sounding very Asgardian again. It's a bit odd, actually. Half the time he sounds Asgardian, the other half he sounds as if he is from modern times.

"Well, kind of... But... It would never happen. I mean, sure, I can make him blush like a school boy, but that's because he's not really experienced with women. He blushes when Tony makes an inappropriate comment sometimes too..." I pause, frowning as I finish my gelato. This was not an explanation I thought I'd have to actually give to anyone. Setting the bowl on my side table, I open the drawer and grab the comic in there. One of the ones that I'd bought at Comic-Con and had apparently followed me here (after a couple attempts by Bruce and Tony to recreate what had happened, only some of my stuff had come through). It was one of the Captain America comic books. I flipped through the pages quickly before landing on the image I was looking for, pointing at it, "He goes for women like this. Not women like me. I'm... It's not gonna happen. It's not worth getting my hopes up. He's fun to tease, and I certainly won't complain if he takes his shirt off, but I've never really been worried about any of that silly romance stuff."

He watches me carefully with a frown, a thoughtful expression almost. I'm rambling. And I realize when I finish rambling that he is no longer blue skinned, and I smile at him, changing the subject.

"We can have secret gelato tastings in my rooms. Pepper has assured me that my room isn't connected to a camera." I tell him with a grin, wiping the blue eye shadow from my cheek. Looking at my hand, I don't think it got enough of it off. "Bah. I have to wash my face. This make up is actually kind of greasy when it's on my entire face."

He chuckles, but nods, standing with me and we split up. Me to my bathroom and him out of my room and out into the hallway with the empty bowls.

o0o

The next morning I realized that Loki must have noticed his brother 'checking in on us' while we had been eating gelato last night. When Thor came to join everyone at breakfast, yawning widely, he looked a little... off. I had to stifle my laughter. I was the first to notice, it seemed, because Steve (who had returned sometime in the middle of the night) gave me an odd look before he too noticed Thor. He opened his mouth to ask and I reached down under the table and grabbed his knee, shaking my head at him. It was Tony, when he came into the kitchen for breakfast (this time made for us by the wonderful private chef we had), who finally commented.

"Feeling a little sad, Thor?" He asked through a chuckle. The God of Thunder looked up in confusion.

"I am quite joyous this morning, Tony." He answers, "What makes you ask such a question?"

"You're a little blue..." He says through laughter, pointing at his face to emphasize his point. The Asgardian's face was covered in my blue eyeshadow like mine had last night. Loki and I burst out laughing.

* * *

******AN: Some serious-ness. But mostly fluffiness. The scene with Loki was inspired by a picture by MsLive on Deviantart. You can find it at mslive (dott) deviantart (dott) com (slash) art (slash) Loki-Am-I-adopted-211557757  
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******Some more info on Amelia, and don't worry, she'll realize what everyone else knows eventually. :p  
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	10. Chapter 9

**TheGirlThatIsBorderlineCrazy: Glad you liked.  
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**SceneNeko: It was totally a date. She just doesn't realize it yet. And glad the scene with Loki made you smile. Pink Iron Man was fun to write, too. Thor just seems like he would like to watch it.  
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**catwoman90808: I actually entertained the idea of Loki/Amelia for this story as well, but teasing Virgin Steve is just too much fun! :)  
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**Scaevola2: Oh. The picture is a similar scene but without Amelia. Of course it was a date.  
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**Vex Matthewson: Glad Pink Iron Man made you chuckle. Glad you enjoyed the scenes with Loki and Steve. Hoping the next ones are realistic too.  
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**Marsktr: I squeed while writing it, so that makes me grin. And I really prefer to see Loki as 'human', but that is why I like him, after all. Some characters appear less, while others appear more. Of course, we mostly see Loki, Steve, Thor and Tony. For now. :)  
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**katta92: I feel really honored by the review, then! It makes me happy to know that you liked it enough that you reviewed! And this one is leaning towards Steve, but I may similar story with Loki/OC that is more light-hearted.  
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**SmartKitty314: I'm glad you liked the ice cream scene.  
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**Bandnerd2669: It is odd to remember that sometimes, since he does so much to hide it, in the end. But I think it underlines who Loki is.  
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**coleypane: I'm glad!  
**

* * *

**Mischief, Rum and Comic Book Wishes  
**

**(Formerly 'The Wish Assistant')  
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By Adrienne Valentine

**Chapter Eight  
**

* * *

Steve took me to see the Empire State Building on 'day twenty six'. I'd heard that the lines were insane, but half an hour into waiting, someone must have recognized Steve as Captain America and took us into the express lane (luckily without making a big fuss out of it), we didn't even have to pay for it and we were standing out on the observation deck, with me flitting around to the level to see everything I could. Steve managed to stay close by me, despite that I was shifting through the crowds using my smaller size to my advantage. Being short was useful when it came to crowds. With how much I hated crowds like this, I had gotten used to sneaking through them as fast as I could in order to avoid having to stay in them for too long.

I had to slide by a few people; a young African-looking couple discussing the buildings (the woman had white hair), an old Asian man with his teenage grandkids (I assumed, they were very cute, called him something that sounded like it could have been grandfather), a middle aged gentleman with a cane (who was rather slow moving to the side), a couple of people that I was pretty sure must have been SHIELD agents (or I was paranoid, they were men in smart looking suits with sunglasses), a family with a sulking teenager glaring for pictures (they had Steve take the picture), not a lot of kids (surprisingly, I would have expected more), and more than a few love-struck couples (which certainly a little awkward, but I chose to ignore them).

In the end, the whole thing is amazing, we spend about an hour, maybe two, up there as I flit about before we go back to ground level. I was bouncing once again as we went down the elevator, all the energy from my excitement yet to die down. New York was big. I had not yet been to even half of the city. No where even close. I hadn't even been to half of Manhattan. The whole place was so... big! And I had my own personal tour guide for it all. We got ice cream from the shop we'd passed by the other day and were busy eating on our way back to the tower. He'd paid for them. I really needed to keep cash on me. I was starting to feel bad that mister forties mentality was having to pay for these things.

He didn't seem to mind. Which was good. This ice cream was delicious, after all. I'd gotten strawberry and he'd gotten chocolate. His chocolate looked really yummy though. But that might have been because he was eating it... And my eyes kept drifting towards his mouth and- I'm staring. Look away, eat your own damn ice cream. So I do, realizing that I have got it bad. I have a huge crush on Steve. Massive. More than just he's attractive and nice... I really wish that these were dates. I'd never been on many, and these seemed like they would make good dates. He was just showing me the city though. But... I can still tease him through all of this. I smirk and stopped where I was for a moment, turning towards him with a small smile.

"Can I taste yours?" I ask him. He hesitates for a moment, but I'm moving anyways. I grab the hand holding the ice cream cone and bring it over to my height. Where I do my best 'sexy lick' and it must work because he blushes. I pull back and grin at him innocently. "Yum."

And simply continue towards the building. That's one I've done before, (though not in front of him). I might be able to make him blush The way he blushes is so attractive that it makes me want to- Stop it. We finish our ice cream as we arrive at the building. When we walk into the elevator this time, Natasha is already in there. I smile at her as we step in, giving the other woman a small wave.

"Steve taking you out?" She asks with that same bored tone and slight quirk of her eyebrow. I nod excitedly at her.

"Yea. We went to the Empire State Building. Pretty amazing." I tell her, noticing Steve smile slightly on my other side. I sent him a wide grin, but turned my attention back to the spy. "What brings you here?"

"I need to talk to the other Avengers." She answered. I waited for her to continue, saying nothing. She didn't. That woman, sometimes hit me a bit off.

We went up the floors in silence from there, I was still bouncing, but it was starting to wear off a little bit. I glanced over at Steve on my other side with a small grin and poked him in the side. He smiled down at me as I waggled my fingers at him, bored with the lack of conversation. He turned towards me a little bit, leaning down to tell me something when the elevator 'ding'ed open. It was our floor. I grabbed his hand as Natasha left the elevator, dragging him out into the common room with me.

Apparently Bruce had returned to the Tower, because he was sitting there with Tony on the couch, talking. With a bag on the floor next to him. I waved at the two of them as we approached. The Asgardians were no where to be seen at the moment, though. Nor was Pepper. Oh well, I suppose. Her and I were starting to get along well after the prank we pulled on Tony.

"Bruce! What brings you here?" I ask him as we all approach. He glances at my hand wrapped around Steve's and I let go, pulling my hand back to me, running it through my hair and looking away. Yup. I just got caught holding Captain America's hand like some silly girl. Curse him and being polite, it made this so hard sometimes.

"I thought I would stay here for a bit." He said casually, not actually answering the question, but that wasn't a big deal. Shrugging, I simply nodded at him as Natasha took over the conversation.

"Where is Thor?" She asked in a dry tone.

"He followed his brother to the library, I think." Tony responded, "I swear, if I didn't know better, I'd say that man was a puppy."

"I'll go grab him." I tell her, chuckling a little at the man's joke before heading towards the stairs. Seems like this Avengers business is important, so I'm not going to argue with them at all.

o0o

"So... You're going to have to leave again soon?" I ask Steve, my back against his arm. He nods at me, and I notice that he has his sketch pad out again.

"Maybe. Natasha seems to think that it may be better if only Bruce and Tony go." He explains. It's just the two of us, which was actually surprising. Loki and Thor liked to hang around constantly. I didn't quite know what they were doing either, but I was not going to complain too much. I did like having time alone with him, after all. Especially if he was going to have to go on a mission. "A potential issue at a science research facility."

I nod a little bit, pouting. I have to admit that I hope he doesn't have to leave. Selfish as it is, I like having him around, especially since he's showing me around the city. I'm not going to tell him that though. I return my attention to the book in my hands and I realize that I've read this sentence three times already. Sighing, I know I am not concentrating at all next to this man, he's a bit distracting to me. Especially since he's drawing. I want to be nosy and peek over his shoulder to see what it is that he's drawing, but at the same time, I don't want to feel like I'm invading his privacy. He doesn't pull out his sketchpad very often. So instead I continue to sit there leaning against him and before I know it I'm dozing off next to him.

I jolt back awake when I hear someone slam something down on the table. I glare up to find Tony there with a wide smirk, Bruce standing slightly behind him. I looked at the table to see what Tony had slammed down. It was a box. A shipping box, to be exact. I raise a sleepy eyebrow at the man, frowning.

"What is this?" I ask him, grumbling as I sit up a bit.

"This," He says, motioning towards the box, "Is your new uniform."

"My... New Uniform?" I say hesitantly, eyebrows raised. He nods at me, and I'm starting to get suspicious.

"You're going to be doing some more work for me at Stark Industries." He told me with his grin still on his face, "So why don't you go try it on to make sure it fits?"

"Right now?" I asked him. He nodded. Sighing, I grabbed the box off of the table and went to my room to change. I was tempted, for half a second, to at least pretend to change out here in the common room; To watch Steve flounder and flail as I start taking off clothes, but that would be teasing the poor boy too much. So I shut my door behind me and proceed to open the box. As I pull out the uniform I realize that he must be messing with me. Oh well. I put it on anyways, feeling like I'm squeezing into this thing. The top still doesn't fit properly, but I'm heading out there anyways since Tony apparently wanted to see. I sigh as I step out into the hall and back into the common room. Bruce has disappeared, leaving just Steve and Tony to see me in this... 'Uniform'.

"The top is a little small, Tony." I tell him, motioning towards the buttons I had to leave undone at the top. "Everything is a little tight, actually."

"Naw, it fits you fine, Ames." He says, chuckling. He turns his heard towards Steve and I realize what this is about. Hands on my hips, I give him a slight glare before joining in on the teasing.

"I feel like a pin-up girl in this. Like I should pose." I say, before doing just that. A little pose with my bum sticking out, leaning forward, with an 'oops' expression and my hand up. Then I start laughing about it, because it feels so ridiculous. But Steve is blushing, which I think is half the point of this. Tony sure likes teasing him, so do I, really. It's fun. "But really, you can't expect me to wear this to work."

"Why not?" He asks innocently, pretending he has no idea.

"Even if I'm not your type, Tony, in this outfit?" I motion towards it as I notice Pepper come in behind him from the elevator, she will certainly agree with me on this, "I won't get anything done!"

"You will get a lot of attention." Steve says, and I could swear there's something in his voice that makes me want to ask. But I don't. He's frowning a little bit. I shrug.

"Hah. And I'll be busy saying 'I'm not interested' to all of them." I sigh, dramatically 'posing' with my hand on my forehead. Steve smiles at my comment, and I'm raising my eyebrow, curiosity still nagging me in the back of my mind. Pushing it aside, I was a little bit towards Pepper, waving at her. She is giving me a sort of 'what are you wearing' look. "How do you like my uniform!"

"I don't think so." She answers. I chuckle at her, grateful that someone is on my side on the matter.

"Good, now I'm going to go get changed." I say, turning off and heading back into my room to put on normal clothes. I did certainly like how Steve blushed when I wore this though. I get changed back into my regular clothing a lot quicker than it took me to put on that uniform. I'm going to keep it, though. I don't quite feel like giving it back at this point. Maybe I could wear it randomly 'for no reason', just to tease poor Steve. I still am not sure why he blushes so much when Tony and I tease him, since this can't be that new to him, but maybe I'm just missing something... Oh well. I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually.

Until then, I head back into the common room and plop myself down on the couch next to Steve, he's talking with Pepper and Tony about... something. I didn't quite catch it because the topic changed as soon as I reappeared. Enough to make a girl paranoid. Let's chose to ignore it, though. I'm not privy to a lot of things they talk about, after all. Doesn't mean it's about me.

"So where are you going?" Pepper asks, turning to Tony.

"Pym has a research facility in South America that Hydra might be interested in from the sounds of it." Tony explained, sounding slightly excited. "we're having to figure out who's going. It wouldn't be unusual for Bruce or I to go, since we both know him, but depending on the presence Hydra has there..."

"We might need the whole team." Steve finished for him with a nod. I'm busy trying to remember who Pym is... The name is so familiar. It's at the tip of my tongue and it's really bugging me...

"Ant-man!" I say Suddenly in my excitement over remembering. The others look over at me and I think I said that louder than I intended. Woops.

"Yea. How did you know that?" Tony asks me.

"Comic books, remember?" I answer with a slight smile. Recognition crosses his face, his mouth making a small 'o' for a moment.

"I guess I assume you know less than you do." He admits with a shrug. I chuckle at him.

"Nope. I know a lot." I tell him with a grin. He shrugs.

o0o

Somehow I ended up alone with Bruce. Some people in my situation might have been afraid, but that had nothing to do with why I felt a little awkward sitting there with him. I just didn't know as much about the man as I did about the other Avengers. And when the man was just character, it wasn't as important. Now that he was an actual person rather than just a character, it was a little uh... Odd being alone with him. The 'Hulk' varied between angry and occasionally simply an asshole, sometimes thoughtful. Bruce Banner was another character entirely, but a lot of the 'Hulk' media I had seen ignored that part of the duality. Or didn't cover him a lot, really. So I didn't know as much about him as the others. Which made this feel like getting to know someone new, something that I'd never been good at. New people made me nervous. I felt comfortable around most of the others because I knew so much about them. Even if they didn't know nearly as much as about me, I had the advantage.

The same wasn't true with Bruce. I knew bits, I knew pieces. Nothing was comprehensive. Steve had just gone to work out. Loki did not want to spend time with the man who might turn green and use him as a rag doll again (not that I blamed him). Thor went with him, and Tony was off doing... The mission in South America at Pym's research facility. Clint and Natasha were off with SHIELD and... wow. I really knew too much about what the others were doing. Not that I had many other things to do. It was day... Twenty nine now. I'd only had three assignments for Stark Industries. I still was not able to start the SHIELD self-defense yet, I had nothing to do most days. Besides read and bug the other inhabitants of the Tower. Which right now included the man on the couch across from me, reading a book.

"So... Um... Science-y... Things." I start awkwardly before making a face at myself for how ridiculous that sounded. Bruce looked up at me while I was making said faces and I restored my face to neutral as best as I could. Which was a slightly awkward smile.

"Are you bored, Amelia?" He asked me, sounding amused. I frowned, paused, then nodded a little bit.

"Maybe..." I say, another pause before I actually pick a topic, "So... What have you been up to lately? You don't come to the Tower much."

"Mostly research. SHIELD still had some information on the Tessaract that they gave me access to." He paused for a moment, "Actually, we've been looking into how you got here."

Shifting in my seat, that sentence makes me feel awkward. The idea makes me nervous more so than more than one reason...

"Not sending me back, are you?" I tease, when he doesn't answer immediately it makes me a little uncomfortable. Eventually he shakes his head at me.

"No. Fury thinks it would a good idea to get information from your world." He explains. Well, that's half of why this whole thing was uncomfortable. I frowned a little bit at this, concerned. "You don't think that's a good idea either, do you?"

I shook my head at his astute observation. I really, really didn't. Then I explained why to the doctor. "The information isn't going to be a direct link to the future... It would be more like knowing the way in which you die but not the when..." He gave me a questioning look so I continued with a small nod. "This universe isn't the one that I have the most information out. This is Earth 19999 or something like that. Might be some more nines at the end of that. The comic book world, the one I know the most about, is Earth 616. There are differences between the worlds, so knowing about 616 might create panic rather than actually help."

"How drastic are these differences?" He asks me with a small frown.

"Some are small, or relatively small. Like Steve knowing his friend Bucky before becoming Captain America. Pepper and Tony hooking up." I pause for a moment, briefly. "Earth 616, Pepper marries Happy, she never dates Tony. Then there are some things that I don't know for sure. It would be a bad idea to get all this information that might be one-off in this world and use it as fact."

"I agree with you, but Fury doesn't want to let it go just yet." He tells me. With a sigh, I know it's one of those things that will have to be fixed. Eventually. Somehow. We lapse into silence for a bit as he picks back up his book. Time ticks by for a few more moments before he sets his book back down again, looking over at me. "You know, there is something that I'm curious about."

"Go ahead." I tell him, motioning a little bit with a raised brow.

"Your favorite 'characters', when you knew them as characters, were Loki, Steve and Tony." I nod, wondering where he's going with. It hasn't really changed and I've stopped really thinking of them as characters. That was a bit odd. I wait for him to continue, curious. "You've explained Loki probably a dozen times already, and, Tony isn't the hero type either. From what I understand, most of your favorite 'characters' aren't typical heroes."

"Typical heroes are usually pretty flat. Good for the sake of good, no faults except for inconsequential ones. They're just... Unrealistic." I answer, shrugging slightly. It was true, I usually went for the villain or anti-hero types instead.

"But you like Steve." I blushed at this comment, opening my mouth for a moment before closing it, realizing what he meant. My favorite character.

"I'll admit, before I got into his comics, the movie and such, I didn't think I'd like him either. As a character, that is. I thought he'd be like Superman..."

"Superman?" He asks.

"Different Comic universe, but another typical hero. He's more like Thor, though. Dropped in from space, raised by cute farmer couple. He always has super-strength, near genius, freezing breath. He'd only vulnerable to a rare glowing green stone from his home planet. His moral compass never wavers, rarely subject to the negative human emotions. Basically, he's perfect. Boring." I pause, looking around the room, behind me, making sure that no one else is there while I explain this second part. "But Steve isn't actually like that. I mean, you know the story. Little guy from Brooklyn becomes a super soldier to win the war."

I grin at this part as I go on to explain the rest of the 'attraction' to the character. As silly as it may or may not be in the end. I had not expected my fictional attraction to translate to an actual attraction in the end like it did now. Not that I knew where all of this was going to go. I didn't expected it to go anywhere, really. But...

"It's skinny Steve that you fall in love with. The little guy who's determined to make a difference, he isn't willing to stop trying, no matter what. You have to admire that. He becomes a super soldier because he is a good person." I pause, finding myself a little embarrassed by all of this. I was gushing. Bruce smirked a little bit. I chuckled at myself for a moment, "Getting to know him as a person, it just kind of reinforces it. Steve's interesting, he's sweet, he's... Well, listen to me ramble here. Steve's just different, I guess. Besides, I have a thing for artists. He's really good, too. Have you seen any of his work?"

"No one else really has seen any of my sketches." Steve's voice rings out from somewhere behind me. Near the elevator. I jump, and realize that Steve is behind me. How long has he been there? My cheeks are burning red hot. I cannot stop myself from blushing profusely. I really want to hide my face right now. I sit up and actually turn towards Steve, who is smiling at me gently. It's actually smiling in such a way that I feel like I'm melting in my seat with the way he's looking at me. He walks over to the couch and plops himself on the seat next to me. This is ridiculous. I am acting like a school girl. And Bruce set me up from this. He's doing this because of Tony, isn't he? Embarrassing me since the pin-up outfit didn't embarrass me. That hadn't worked.

"Did you want to go Central Park tonight?" Steve asked me. I grin, nodding and not trusting my voice at the moment.

o0o

It was actually kind of late by the time we had left the restaurant. Later than I had been expecting, at least. We had gotten into there later than I had been expected, I suppose. Season changes always threw me off. It was getting close to fall, the air was starting to get a little chilly and the nights were getting darker sooner. Earlier than I had expected, at least.

I had to admit, this trip out of the tower almost seemed like a date. We had gone to a nicer restaurant than usual. He'd insisted on paying for dinner. Again. I had tried to get to my money without him noticing. Unfortunately, it was in my bra and it was hard to do that. So I was left to let him pay. Or risk pretty much reaching down my shirt or falling out of said shirt in the process. Neither would be entirely too great of an idea. I had actually had to dress up for this place. Not formal, but something more than jeans and a tee shirt. A nice skirt, a semi-casual top. Heels (mostly because he was so tall). Why was I wearing this? I felt so silly.

Even now we were walking through Central Park and I was focused on my wardrobe instead of the scenery. It was so pretty at this time. A warm summer evening, the sun had just barely set. It was actually kind of romantic... I shouldn't think like that. I close my eyes for a moment, trying to clear the thoughts from my head. It wasn't working. I follow him as we walk through the park. Along the concrete path, I stood a little closer to him. I think I was starting to believe them. Loki and Pepper and Tony. It was making me nervous. I kept glancing at him from the corner of my eye. I couldn't stop myself. He was so... Tall. And handsome. And... I'm noticing how his blonde hair looks especially soft in the low light of the park and my hand is starting to move of it's own accord and I have to stop it, mid movement. My hand halted half-way to it's prize. The movement must have caught his attention because he looks over at me, a smile dancing across his lips.

My face heats up, my hand falling back to my side and I divert my eyes to avoid getting drawn in. Does he even realize what he's doing? I chance myself another look, and this time he looks a bit more nervous. Is this whole thing painted on my face so plainly that he can see? I scold myself, trying to simple enjoy this for what it is, instead of worrying about what it isn't. Two friends walking in the park. The silence doesn't help. But I don't know what to say and why is this suddenly so hard?

So I allow the silence for a moment as the pathway climbs a gentle slope. The beautiful greenery stretching out before me, cherry trees flanking us. It's calming, peaceful. Perfect. The beauty of the place settles me and I feel the corners of my mouth turn up of their own accord.

"I bet you could spend a whole day or two here, just wandering." I comment, turning my head towards. He smiles back down at me.

"That you could." He answers, looking around us. "I admit, I didn't come here often when I was younger."

"I don't see why not. I'd be down here every day if I could." I tease him a little, but I'm in such awe at the scenery, especially as we come to a bridge, that it's hard to keep it out of my voice. "It's beautiful."

This time, the silence is comfortable when we fall into it, casually making our way over the bridge. Slowing down a little, I survey the view from the bridge. We're over the water and there is a couple on a boat beneath us, passing underneath. I stop, stepping to the edge and peering after them as they go by and under, sliding my feet into the little holes in the side to get a better look. I feel Steve by me, and I send him a grin as the boat disappears from view. Wanting to chase after it across the bring, I step out. Or try to. My foot slips and I topple to my side- right into Steve. His arms wrap around me, catching me, and my face heats up once again. I get my feet back under me properly, keeping me eyes diverted so he can't see their undoubtedly red tinge, but he doesn't let go.

Instead, he keeps his arms around my waist, gentle and steady. He's holding me against his muscled chest and I can smell him and my head suddenly feels light. It's like when I pulled on that shirt of his my first day in this world. I find myself taking a deep breath in, calming myself and drinking in the scent that is uniquely him. American, like Apple Pie, and old fashioned and grounded. It's just very... Steve. My eyelids flutter closed and I feel his hand move up my side, resting on my shoulder for a moment, the palm of his hand rough. A shiver runs through me and I meet his eyes without thinking. He's staring down at me, unguarded, and I know what comes next. My body responds as he moves. His hand goes from my shoulder, dances across my neck, and lands on my jaw as I tilt my head towards him. Stretching up onto my toes, my eyes slid closed as he leans down and I feel his lips press against mine.

My arms wind themselves around his shoulders, his other hand finds its way to the other side of my jaw and I feel like I'm falling, or flying. His lips are softer than I was expecting and I can taste him, my tongue darting out tentatively. He makes a noise in the back of his throat that hits me like a wave, heat spreading through my entire body as I press myself further against him. He deepens the kiss, pulling me up and further onto my tip toes, but I have to pull back, taking in a deep breath in, hungry for air but wanting desperately to dive right back in.

He smiles gently at me, and he's blushing. I pull myself up towards him, brushing my lips against his for a moment before grinning back at him.

* * *

******AN: Well, it certainly was a date this time. :) Some progress going on here with Amelia and Steve. Think she gets the point now? No Loki in this chapter, sorry Loki-Lovers. He'll be back soon enough, though. I really wanted to focus on Amelia/Steve this chapter. Let me know if Bruce seems off, he didn't make as much of an appearance in the movie as the others (and I've only seen Edward Norton as the Incredible Hulk a couple times). As always, I absolutely love reviews! They keep me motivated, though I am currently out of town so the next chapter may take a bit more time than it usually would.  
**


	11. Chapter 9 Point 5

**Mischief, Rum and Comic Book Wishes  
**

**(Formerly 'The Wish Assistant')  
**

By Adrienne Valentine

**Chapter Nine Point Five  
**

* * *

So. They were dates, I guess. Steve had been taking me out on dates. The idea was strange but as I glanced up towards the taller man as he smiled softly down at me, I really couldn't deny it. I mean, right now we were holding hands. I hadn't felt so giddy about such a small thing since... Junior High? I suspect that he had waited to kiss me because of some sort of forties mentality or something, though the idea still seemed strange to me, considering my past. He'd only heard parts of it based off of the game of 'I never' that we played, and I wondered what he thought of those things, but I wasn't going to ask. I didn't want to ruin the moment. Not that my fretting wasn't starting to do that on its own. I shook myself a little bit to clear the negative thoughts from my head.

"Are you cold?" Steve asked me out of nowhere. I watched him for a moment, unsure of where he'd gotten the idea. (Oh right, I must have literally shaken myself, didn't I? Well then...) He wasn't waiting for me to answer though. He let go of my hand and pulled off his jacket, placing it on my shoulders gently. Stepping closer to him, I did have to notice that his arm was now around my shoulders as well as I clutched the front of his jacket. I may look a little silly, but that was a small thing compared to how wonderful this was.

Yea, I was totally enjoying this way too much right about now. I was not actually cold, not even a little bit, but the gesture and the jacket and the presence of the Super Soldier was endearing. And adorable. Even if I could tell he felt a little awkward. He was walking far too stiffly for the first little bit that his arm was around me, his arm far too light on my shoulder, as if he was prepared to take it off at any moment. I snuggled a little closer to him instead, careful not to trip over my own feet. Or his. I almost had started to, getting a little too close at first. If he noticed, he didn't say anything.

We walked like that for a little while more, all the while I could not stop myself from smiling. I did, however, resist the urge to kiss him every time he looked over at me, though only barely. Largely because this was so odd for me. My behavior, the circumstances. Everything. I was normally not this affectionate, this fluttery about anyone. I was not a romantic person normally. But right now I wasn't so sure. Maybe it was the park, with all of it's greenery the trees and the atmosphere, or perhaps it was Steve. He was the Captain America after all. If a girl didn't feel all giggly being wooed by him (and she, of course, actually liked him), there was something off. At least they'd be giggly over his adorable stumbling and awkwardness. It was rather silly, after all. The big strong soldier acting shy about anything romantic. I couldn't help but grin at the idea as we made out way back to the Tower.

It was a long walk, I knew that because it had felt so long when we had gone out before the date, but it didn't feel like it anymore. (Though, I was certainly going to be in shape soon after all of these walks through the city. Most of the things here were blocks away from the Tower, and Steve liked to walk. Which meant that I wasn't going to complain about it. I didn't want to seem like a silly little wimp, after all. Even though I was...) I was in too good of a mood for my legs or my feet to hurt, grinning from ear to ear, by the time we got back to the lobby of the Tower, my cheeks were starting to hurt a little bit. We climbed into the elevator and stayed in the same position as it 'dinged' its way up the floors. I glanced over at him to find him looking at me again. Still that smile.

He looked nervous for a moment though, as if unsure of what to do. Crooking a finger at him, urging him down to my level. When he closed the gap between us, his face a few inches from mine, I grinned, standing up unto my tip toes and pressing my lips against his. I had meant it to be only for a brief moment. A quick kiss. He, apparently, had other plans. When I begin to pull back, he moves forward, keeping his lips against mine, gently. My arms, this time, settled on his hips, with his arms wrapped around my shoulders. He had to stoop a little and when he shifted slightly to let me sink off of my toes, I took advantage. My hand drifted to his bum as I tugged on his bottom lip gently. One of these actions seemed to startle him, but in an excellent way. Pausing only for a moment, he practically dove in with renewed fervor. This time lifting me off of my feet a little bit in the process.

DING.

"Took you long enough." Came Loki's voice as the door to the elevator opened. We jumped apart to find Loki sitting in one of the armchairs, arms crossed with a sour expression on his face, turned in the direction of the elevator. If I didn't know better, I would say he looked like he had been waiting for us. Why he would be waiting for us, I'm not sure, but Steve walks off, giving me a quick kiss before wandering off to his room. I still have his jacket when he disappears. Loki snarks when the Captain disappears. "Have fun?"

I grinned over at him, ignoring the tone in his voice, "He kissed me."

He made a short grunt of noise. I choose to take it as encouragement, even though I knew that it probably wasn't. I sit on the arm of his chair and he's still not looking at me.

"What is it?" I ask him, sighing and poking him slightly from where I'm sitting. He says nothing for a few moments before he looks at me.

"Lets play chess." He says. He doesn't give me a proper answer. I shouldn't be surprised. But I nod and off we go to play chess.

* * *

******AN: This is not a proper chapter, loves. Life has been pure madness. I've been busy and I feel terrible. That's why you're getting this half-chapter. Hopefully, I'll have a real chapter for you soon. There is going to be a real plot beyond the silly soon as well. Just ah... introducing it will be awkward.  
**


	12. Chapter 10

**Mischief, Rum and Comic Book Wishes  
**

By Adrienne Valentine

**Chapter Ten  
**

* * *

Loki and Thor had had an argument while Steve and I had been gone, it turns out. He hadn't known that I was gone (the date had been impromptu, after all, and I hadn't told him) and had searched most of the living quarters before anyone had told him. Not that he had told me this, of course. I had gathered this from Thor, mostly, and brief comment from Bruce as he headed out to the Pym research facility. The God of Mischief had actually asked Bruce if he had seen me. If I didn't know better, I would have been so struck by the ridiculousness of it all. But... Sometimes everyone needed a friend. The night after my date, I'd apologized, given Steve a kiss, and holed Loki and I off to eat gelato, play chess and make fun of Thor. (No one would tell me what the argument had been about, but I wasn't going to press it.) And then Loki had let me gush about the date and tease me about how I hadn't gotten that it was date despite everyone telling me that it was.Of course, it wouldn't have made a difference. I was still feeling so nervous about Steve. A few days after that, he had taken to calling me 'his girl', and we were apt to sneaking kisses whenever we got the chance whenever Loki wasn't teasing us too badly. Which, I had to admit, was rather funny. I even had fun teasing him. Especially since he was very hesitant with everything. It was because he was new at it all, I was well aware, but I was so unused to such politeness from a partner. Three dates and no sex wasn't the strangest thing in my dating world, but I was already getting the feeling that this would be moving at a snail's pace. Something I was definitely not used to. It didn't help that he was still was conflicted about Peggy and would probably need space to sort that out well enough. I didn't want to push.

But things went south down at the Pym facility pretty quickly. Day thirty five had Thor and Steve leaving to help out with the facility and making sure Hydra didn't do anything. Which made Steve very worried. Not that he said so directly, but he was far more expressive than he probably thought he was. When someone would mention Hydra, his face would screw up in a manner that would have been adorable, if it weren't so obvious that he was distressed.

So when the he left, I sent him off as sweet as I could, gave him a kiss, and watched as he left. And start, of course, feeling rather insecure again. Something Loki likes to tease me about. Which he's doing. Right now. Like some sort of younger brother, and I'm pouting.

"No, no, that's what you get for going after the Super Soldier." He tells me with a grin, taking his glass of wine and sipping it all regally. I sigh, shaking my head, amused at him.

"Well, I could have gone after you..." I tease and he practically chokes on his wine. Which has me laughing. He sputters for a moment before regaining composure. (I'm still laughing at his reaction.)

"I am engaged." He answers tightly, and he doesn't exactly seem happy about it. This has my chuckling subsiding for a bit. I mean, the Norse Mythos always had him as married, but he had never mentioned anything. Nor had Thor, really. Or the movies at all, really. So... Awkward question time now!

"Sigyn?" I ask, hoping I didn't mispronounce the name. I mean, I've always said it 'See-gin', while I've heard others say it 'Seg-un'. He nods, and doesn't correct me, so I couldn't have butchered it too badly. He doesn't say anything for a moment, and I don't want to pry, so I'm not going to ask, but apparently he's started to feel comfortable with me.

"Odin arranged it quite some time ago, but I could not be wed until my brother was wed as well." He tells me with a shrug. I don't mention to him about his use of 'brother' when referring to Thor, and he seems a little sad sounding about the whole thing, but he didn't explain anything else, which left me to ponder the differences between the comics and the movies.

This universe certainly seemed one-off. Not just in regards to the history and plot line, but also they all looked one-off. Oh, if you weren't paying attention, Loki looked like Tom Hiddleston, Thor like Chris Hemsworth, Steve like Chris Evans and so forth, but after spending so much time with them... Loki's eyes were more of an emerald green and there were things I couldn't quite place without pictures side by side, but his features were... slightly different. All of them had this. Steve's hair was definitely blonder, and so was Thor's. Little things, I suppose. Really odd that I notice them while I'm watching Loki as he fights with his emotions and I feel suddenly very awkward. And I realize something else, and I'm taking a random chance here and I frown for a moment.

"Do you miss them?" He looks at me, somewhat surprised, before he seems to remember that I told him I know pretty much everything. He nods.

"I was not allowed to see them while I was back in Asgard for my trial." He answers, and sighs. This conversation has been sad throughout for both of us, it seems. I reach over and pull the man into a hug.

o0o

It turns out, the argument with Thor had been about Loki's children. He actually did tell me as much, before preceding to try to find things to cheer both of us up. Which ended up being to watch random television shows. Tony must have restricted the TV, because JARVIS wouldn't play Doctor Who, or Sherlock, or Supernatural, or the really cool shows. We ended up landing on a terrible teen romantic comedy that I had never seen before and must have been exclusive to this world because it mentioned 'Steel Man' (totally not Iron Man, like, really, he wasn't even red! He was... Orange. Very Original.)

Well, this lead to drinking, of course, in order to get through the mediocre acting and the random musical interludes.

("Why are they singing?" Loki asks me as they break out into a highly off tune song.

"I have no idea... Let's sing along!"

And we do...)

And the terrible dancing at the oh-so-typical 'high school dance' scene. (Or was it high schoolers attending a college party scene? It was so hard to tell because we were making fun of their ridiculous dancing...)

Which somehow leds to more terrible teenager movies.

And more liquor. And things get a little fuzzy for a bit, but somehow I end up on the couch singing along to a song I actually like. (I vaguely remember going through a few terrible pop songs first though.)

"I cant decide, whether y' should live or die. You'll prolly go to heaven, please dun hang your head an cry, no wonder why..." I'm slurring through it, of course, my voice not really closing around the letters properly, "Heart feelsss dead inside, cold and hard and pet'fied, lock th' doors an close the blinds, We goin for a ride..."

And I stop there with a giggle fit before I convince Loki to sing with me with all of this. (Not that he knows any of the songs, really, but he is going to try, damn it!)

It takes a bit, but soon he's singing along to P!nk's "Raise your Glass" with me.

We're in the middle of the Chorus.. ("Raise your glass if you are wrong in all the right ways, all my underdogs, we will never be anything but loud and nitty gritty, dirty little freaks...")

When the door opens to the room we're in and... "Hi there", there is the whole gang! Loki stops abruptly, throwing me off balance as I had not yet noticed when until he stops and I fall forward, nearly pitching over the back edge of the couch.

"What... What is this? I don't even...?" I say as I hang there mostly upside down before someone (Loki?) helps me back up. I grin at the gang (I must have drunk a bit, there seem to be two extra people?) "Hey thur! You guys are back quick!"

Steve, ever the gentleman, comes over and helps me up and helps me to bed as usual. This time, though, I steal a kiss as he helps me onto my bed, wrapping my arms securely around his neck and pulling him towards me as I lean back a little bit. And he kisses back, but he's still hesitant, and I let him pull back and simply smile at him as he blushes ever so cutely.

"Night Steve."

o0o

Aaaaaand the next morning, I actually don't have a complete hangover or anything. (I think Loki and I must have been pigging out on fatty foods last night.) So when I hop out of bed, I'm actually chipper as I do my basic morning getting readies and head out of my room. Down the hallway, I notice that everyone is sitting on the couches (except Loki) and I did not imagine the two extra people last night. There were there, talking with everyone. About... Something. I only wave vaguely as I head to the kitchen though, where I find Loki sitting at the counter, poking at some toast, bored.

"Who are those two?" I ask him as I head towards the fridge for something to eat. I end up settling on a fruit bowl as I step out of the fridge. It must have been put there by the 'Avengers Tower Chef', who I had no idea who that was, must it definitely must have been someone because this stuff just appeared in the fridge. These little meals, or maybe Tony was a secret super chef or something. Loki shrugged when I came over to sit next to him.

"I do not know." He answered, once again sounding a little pouty as well. "They are with SHIELD, however. That I know."

I nod a little at his comment before popping a raspberry into my mouth. They seem to be discussing some sort of important business anyways, so I'm not going to bother them. Or at least, that's what I'm thinking when I hear Tony call out my name from the other room. Taking the bowl of fruit with me, I nod to Loki and head into the main room to see what the silly group of mine wants. Yes, they are mine. I don't care what anyone else thinks.

"Yes, Tony?" I say as I enter, innocently sneaking another berry as I come up behind the couch where Steve is sitting next to Clint.

"And Amelia here is basically my secretary. Well, PR secretary, basically." He starts to explain, only briefly gesturing over towards me. Steve glances up at me and gives me a small smile. I smile back at him and as he opens his mouth to say something, I pop a raspberry into his mouth without waiting for him to be ready for it. Which makes for a slightly awkward moment because he chokes on it for a moment. Something I chuckle about as I hear Tony continue, "She stays in the building, except if someone is with her. She kind of knows everything, so don't worry about her finding out anything embarrassing. Chances are, she probably already knows it."

I'm a little surprised by Tony's assessment of me. He almost makes me sound like I have a superpower or something. Like I'm omniscient or something. I scoff at his statement.

"Not everything, Tony." I correct him, offering Steve another berry, which he stares at warily for a moment. I think he's afraid to choke again or something. Hah. So I eat it quickly before continuing. "More just since you became superheroes. You know, maybe a bit of the other stuff too. But only bits and pieces, really. Not literally everything."

They were making some faces at me, the two of them, I'm not sure if I liked it, either. I was used to that look. I'd gotten it enough times from perfect strangers and it made me frown back at them as Steve took a berry from my bowl.

"Are you...?" The woman starts, cocking my head to the side, I realize I have no idea what she's talking about, but I don't ask too much. "A uh... Mutant?"

I chuckle, and shake my head. "No, no. It's, well, it's complicated, really, I-uh..." Waving my hand sort of uselessly, I am a little grateful when Tony cuts in.

"She's from another dimension, basically." He says so casually you'd think it was as if he said that he liked to drink, or that Steve is blonde. The two of them, sitting on the other couch with Thor, looking confused for a moment. "One where we are comic book characters, actually. It's really quite amusing."

"Oh yeah, throw it at them like that. Sounds a bit nutters that way, Tony." I tell him with a chuckle. Then, pausing for a moment before I continue, "But I do have copies of some of them... It's really one of those things that's hard to explain, I suppose."

But the one issue was that I couldn't exactly just prove it with a snap of my fingers. I couldn't always prove it, even. Faces, for example, were a bit off. I think that these people were probably, judging by the timing of all of this... Hank Pym and his girlfriend. Janet van... Dyne. That was it, I think. No, definitely. I think? Ant-Man and Wasp were not my favorites, despite that they popped up so much. Certain... Incarnations of Hank were not exactly very... Well, they weren't good, and it was a bit hard to get past that. For me, at least.

"Another dimension, really?" Hank asks, curious, leaning forward and seeming almost like a school boy. Oh, good. Seems like a better incarnation of him, then. I nod a little bit and he seems curious.

"Yea. And before you ask, no, I've no idea how I got here or anything of the sort. Didn't really bother looking into it myself." I explain with a bit of a shrug. It's true. It's not like I was interested in going back or anything. I mean, yea, I missed Sarah. I really missed her, and occasionally Jessie, and my dog, but... All of this was... It was awesome, actually. My lack of knowledge on the matter seems to be disappointing to him, and he is turning his attention back to the rest of the group. Clint steals a berry from my bowl right as I take some and I scowl playfully at him, but he says nothing. They start ignoring me so I offer another berry to Steve, giving him a kiss when he lets me lets me feed it to him. (And he looks so awkward for the whole thing, really. It's hilarious.) Just a quick kiss after I pull my hand away. Then I scamper off back to the kitchen where Loki is waiting.

* * *

**AN: OMG. Sorry I took so long, loves. It has been... Well, it's been crazy. I feel the need to explain. I had to go out of town for a funeral. I came back to one of my cats missing, my mom had to go to the hospital, I got sick, went to Steampunk convention, got into a car accident, my friend got kicked out of his house and moved in with me, and then my car died. Yea. Life blew up in my face. So that's where I've been. So I am so sorry, and this chapter may be a bit off, I have to get back into the swing of things for this. And I am debating having a tumblr just for this story. Well, so I can have an excuse for Amelia to answer random questions. :3 And maybe some silly drawings. Opinions?  
**


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